372 



Adulteration of Butter and Milk. 



therefore, to interfere with the assessment of the amount of 

 vegetable oils in ordinary butter. 



The bearing of these experiments upon the detection of the 

 adulteration of butter with margarine, which is usually made 

 up with vegetable oils, is not only of importance in connec- 

 tion with the examination of imported butters, but also as 

 regards analytical work under the Sale of Food and Drugs 

 Acts. 



Adulteration of Butter and Milk. 



The report of the Local Government Board for 1897-98 con- 

 tains particulars of the results of the analyses of samples of 

 food and drugs undertaken by Local Authorities in 1897, 

 under the powers conferred on them by the Sale of Food and 

 Drugs Act, 1875. Among other articles, 8,164 samples of 

 butter, or what was sold as butter, were analysed, and 841 or 

 10*3 per cent, were condemned. A large number of samples 

 of margarine were also taken, and in most of the cases the 

 article had been sold contrary to the provisions of the 

 Margarin.e Act, 1887. The analyst for one London parish 

 reported that 60 per cent, of the margarine samples analysed 

 by him in 1897 were unlabelled, A few samples of butter 

 were condemned on account of an excess of water, and some 

 of the samples on account of the unacknowledged addition of 

 boric acid. In many cases the quantity of acid added was 

 very small, but one sample in Glamorganshire was stated to 

 contain as much as 112 grains per lb., or 7 grains per oz. 



In different parts of the country the percentage of adulte- 

 rated samples of butter varied considerably. In London, the 

 rate was 14-4, in the thirty- two great towns it was 16-9, and 

 in the rest of the country taken together it was as low as 6*7 

 per cent. The number of samples of butter submitted to the 

 analysts by private purchasers was 320, and of these as many 

 as 175 or 54*7 per cent, were condemned. This number in- 

 cluded 262 samples taken by a special inspector of the Royal 

 Lancashire Agricultural Society under an arrangement by 

 which the analyses are made by the County Analyst free of 



