Food Adulteration in England and France

Abstract

IN this country the statutes dealing with the adulteration of food are the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, 1875 to 1907. Administrative Authorities.-The authorities primarily charged with the administration of these Acts are :-In London the City Corporation and the Metropolitan Borough Councils. In boroughs having a separate court of quarter sessions and a population exceeding 10,000, the Town Council; elsewhere the County Council. As is presumably the case with all similar duties vested in local authorities, without much supervision from a central body, the administration of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts is conspicuous for lack of uniformity. In some areas a disproportionately small number of samples is taken; while the conditions under which samples are taken are in some districts much less favourable to efficient administration than they are in others. Some local councils give their clerk or their medical officer of health or their inspector of weights and measures or their chief constable or their sanitary inspector carte blanche to take samples and to institute legal proceedings as he may think fit. Others keep the work under direct supervision and control. Some authorities are reluctant to prosecute except in very grave cases, and therefore conduct a more or less exhaustive inquiry into the circumstances