Cheese means the substance usually known as cheese, containing no fat derived otherwise than from milk.

Local Authority means any L. A. authorised to appoint an analyst for the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, and the expression public analyst means an analyst so appointed.

ᏢᎪᎡᎢ 1.

The Sale of Food and Drugs Act of 1875.

This is the principal Act on this subject.

Offences under this Act :

No person shall mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to do so, any article of food with any ingredient or material so as to render the article injurious to health, with intent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall sell any such article so mixed, coloured, stained or powdered under a penalty in each case not exceeding fifty pounds for the first offence; every offence after the first conviction shall be a misdemeanour, for which the person shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months with hard labour.

No person shall, except for the purpose of compounding, mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person so to do, any drug with any ingredient or material to affect injuriously the quality or potency of such drug, with intent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall sell any such drug so mixed, coloured, stained or powdered under the same penalty in each case respec

tively as in the preceding section for a first and subsequent offence.

Provided that no person shall be liable to be convicted under either of the two last foregoing sections, if he shows to the satisfaction of the justice or Court that he did not know of the article of food or drug sold by him being so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, and that he could not with reasonable diligence have obtained that knowledge.

NOTE.-The onus probandi of absence of mens rea is on the defendant.

A master is liable for his servant, if by improper supervision the servant has the opportunity to adulterate either food or drug.

No person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance and quality of the article demanded by such purchaser, under penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

Provided that an offence shall not be deemed to be committed in the following cases:

1. Where an ingredient not injurious to health has been added because the same is required for the production or preparation thereof as an article of commerce, in a state fit for carriage or consumption, and not fraudulently to increase the bulk, weight, or measure of the food or drug, or conceal the inferior quality thereof.

2. Where the drug or food is a proprietary medicine, or is the subject of a patent in force, and is supplied in the state required by the specification of the patent.

3. Where the food or drug is compounded as in this Act mentioned.

4. Where the food or drug is unavoidably mixed with

some extraneous matter in the process of collection or preparation.

NOTE.-A master is liable not only for the unauthorised but also for an act directly in disobedience to his orders done by a servant within the scope of his authority: Brown v. Foot, 66 L. T. 649, in which case a servant watered his can of milk.

A servant as well as his master may be convicted as the actual seller. No purchaser is prejudiced if

A. At time of purchase he is informed that article is

not of the nature, substance, and quality which he demands; but

B. Purchaser need not prove actual damage to establish the fact that an article has been sold to his pre

judice.

It used to be held that the words nature, substance, and quality could not be disjoined, i.e., that it must be proved before a conviction would lie that the article sold differed in all three respects from that demanded.

The words the article demanded are always taken to mean the article known under that name in commerce.

No offence is committed under the above section if the article sold is altogether different from that which was demanded at the time of purchase. (Knight v. Bowers (1885), 14 Q. B. D. 845.)

No person shall sell any compound article of food or compounded drug which is not composed of ingredients in accordance with the demand of the purchaser under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

NOTE. This section would include prescriptions or recipes of any kind.

Provided that no person shall be guilty of an offence if mixed ingredient be not injurious to health, and not intended fraudulently to increase bulk, weight, or measure, or conceal inferior quality, if at time of delivery he shall supply a notice, by a label distinctly and legibly written or printed on or with the article or drug, to the effect that the same is mixed.

Abstraction before Sale.

No person shall, with the intent that the same may be sold in its altered state without notice, abstract from an article of food any part of it, so as to affect injuriously its quality, substance, or nature, and no person shall sell any article so altered without making disclosure of the alteration, under a penalty in each case not exceeding twenty pounds.

NOTE. The extent of disclosure to satisfy the above section is not always easy to determine, as the cases on the point appear to conflict; but it has been held by the High Court that what is, or is not, a sufficient disclosure is a question of fact for the Court hearing in the first instance the charge; and it would appear that if a magistrate takes evidence of how any particular abstraction can be made, and then finds as a fact as to whether a sufficient disclosure has or has not been made, such magistrate's decision will not be interfered with.

Appointment of Analyst.

Who may appoint :

1. In the City of London, the Commissioners of Sewers. 2. In all other parts of the metropolis, the metropolitan

boroughs.

3. The County Councils of every county.

4. The Town Council of every borough having a separate court of quarter sessions, or having a separate

police establishment,

may, or when required by the L. G. B. shall, appoint persons possessing competent knowledge as analysts of food and drugs.

Procedure on Suspicion of Adulteration.

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Any purchaser of an article of food or a drug in any place where there is an analyst appointed, on payment to such analyst of a sum not exceeding ten shillings and sixpence, or if there be no such analyst, to the analyst of another place of such sum as may be agreed upon between such person and the analyst, shall be entitled to have such article analysed by such analyst, and to receive from him a certificate of the result of his analysis.

Officials who may obtain Sample for analysis:

1. Any M. O. H.

2. Any Inspector of Nuisances.

3. Any Inspector of Weights and Measures.

4. Any Inspector of a Market.

5. Any Police Constable,

at the cost of the L. A., may procure a sample of food or drugs, and submit the same to be analysed by the analyst, who shall with all convenient speed analyse the same, and give a certificate specifying the result of his analysis.

Purchase by Deputy.

The L. A. may not appoint any person not named above to obtain samples for analysis, but an officer so named