SCOTLAND YARD OF TRADE

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 January 1931, Page 16

SCOTLAND YARD OF TRADE

How Foreign Food Frauds Are Revealed

fpiT'E uncanniness of a witch \s cauidron and the mystery of a medieval alchemy are combined in a wellknown Government department with a staff of fewer than two hundred, which can claim to be the most efficient chemical laboratory in the world (states the “'.Sunday Express.”) Thousands of pounds’ worth of diamonds pass through the laboratory for tests under the infra-red ray, and Sir Robert Robertson, the chief chemist, tackles them with the same detachment as he and his assistants handle samples of soap and sheep-dip. These twentieth-century alchemists, modestly concealed in an unassuming building in a little lane off the Strand, are less concerned with the still unsolved problem of turning base metals into gold than in exposing fake and adulteration in the commodities of commerce. The laborator is the headquarters of the -Scotland-yard of British trade.

laid down by the Royal /Commission on Brewing. Sixtv-one samples of tinned fruit and vegetables were found to contain sulphur dioxide, benzoic acid, and other dangerous preservatives. Among 3480 samples of imported chocolates hundreds were found to contain spirits and liquors rendering them liable to spirit duty. Hundreds of samples of foods, drugs, and liquors from shops, night clubs, and opium dens were .tested for the police in connection with prosecutions.

The laboratory was the means of proving in the law courts the existence of an extensive conspiracy at Somerset House for the fraudulent use of old Inland Revenue stamps. The pigments and gums used for postage stamps and insurance cards are systematically examined for deleterious substances. Eighteen samples of the gums used for cigarette-papers were tested.

In the past twelve months 545,422 samples have passed through the test tubes and the crucibles of the laboratory. The Admiralty and the War Office submit thousands of samples of food every year. Everything they buy is submitted to scrutiny—even metal polish, oilskins, and the gold braid of an admiral’s epaulets.

The samples examined for the Ministry of Agriculture included sea water from oyster beds. The 'Ministry of Health submitted wine and liquid eggs. 'Samples of air from the 'House of Commons were tested for dust, and the Office of Works submitted soap-powder and weed killer.

Inks used by the Treasury were examined for permanency, and the Post Office submitted a now ink made from a flower for the printing of postage stamps.

The evidences of fraud and adulteration in food imported from foreign countries are amazing.

'Two samples labelled “butter’’ were found to be a low-grade margarine heavily pregnated with boric acid. Eight samples of milk powder, guaranteed to be made from full milk, were found to have been deprived of all their fat in the process of manufacture.

In a year ‘2OO milligrams of highgrade radium salt has been recovered from decayed luminous paint, reconditioned, and retubed for research pur. poses. Even the National Gallery has had recourse to the laboratory for the detection of fraud. The pigments of the paint of some of the nation’s most famous and costly pictures have been submitted for chemical and microphotographical examination to ensure their genuineness.

One-third of the foreign cheese samples tested was found to be made from skimmed or partially-skimmed milk.

Eggs sold as “British new-laid’’ w r ere submitted to tests which showed

that a foreign mark of origin had been obliberated and a British stamp in different ink substituted.

The Air Ministry sent samples of natural gas from South Africa to be examined on their suitability for air-

Thirty-two samples of beer contain-. ships, but they were found to contain ed arsenic to the excess of the limit only negligible traces of helium.