PURE FOOD

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 270, 7 August 1908, Page 7

PURE FOOD

ANTI-ADULTERATION LAW IN NEW SOUTH WALES. (BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPIRIdHT.) Sydney, August 6. A Pure Foods Bill has been introduced into the State Assembly. It is substantially the same as the Bill which failed to pass last year. The chief alteration provides for prosecution of tho manufacturer instead of tho retailer of the goods.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE, Dr. Ashburton Thompson, President of the New South Wales Board of Health, states that the. now Bill will completo the legislation on the subject of adulteration, and will givo the officials power in directions in which they are now helploss. Intor alia, tho Bill > will enforce standards of quality. ' The followingbased 011' details supplied by Dr.- Thompsonshows the progress that has been made in Sydney under the present law :— In 1901, the first year that the law was really put into force, a total ,of 228 samples of food were taken' in the metropolis. It was Dr Armstrongs first year of office as health officer for the metropolis. Out of that 228 samples 138 were found to be adulterated, or equal to over CO per cent, of tho total. Last year over' 1700 samples of all foods were taken, and 244 were found to be adulterated—equal to only U per cent. In 1901, in the city of Sydney, 70 per cent, of the samples of milk taken were found to be badly adulterated, while last year only 6 per cent, of tho milk was fouijd to contain a slight addition of water. In the .whole of tho metropolis in 1901 only 212 samples of milk were taken, but 131 of theso or over 60 per cent., were adulterated; while last year 1074 samples Of milk wore secured, and 102 only, or 9.5 per cent., were adulterated.