WHAT IS BRANDY ?

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 786, 30 March 1905, Page 23

WHAT IS BRANDY ?

We extract the following interesting article from the “Standard” of February ■7th:— The question of obtaining, by legislation or otherwise, an improvement in the present system of public control over the purity of articles of food and drink has become one of great, and even national, importance. Many of the grosser kinds of adulteration, against which the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts were originally directed, have practically ceased, but in their place has arisen a great variety of more subtle forms of adulteration, sometimes harmful, and always objectionable, on account of the misrepresentation that the sophisticated article is the genuine product which the purchaser has asked for, and has a right to expect. With adulterations of this kind the local authorities, whose business it is to enforce the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, are often unable to deal satisfactorily, and this fact has been insisted on by many medical authorities, and others who have interested themselves ini the subject. About a year ago an inquiry into the composition of brandy, which _is popularly supposed to be the product of distillation of grape juice, was made by the “Lancet,” with the result of finding that a large proportion of brandy sold at good prices contained more or less “silent” or grain spirit, obtained by patent still processes. The effect of this inquiry has been that in a number of places proceedings have lately been taken against persons who sold such mixtures as “brandy,” with the satisfactory result that in several instances fines have been) inflicted, while some vendors of the mixed spirit have been obliged to place on the labels of their bottles some sort of declaration that the contained liquor is only partly obtained from grape juice. This is a step in the right direction, but the proceedings have disclosed enormous differences in the views of the analysts as to the chemical characters of a pure grape juice product, and conflicting decisions and opinions have led to considerable difficulties, and to a quite natural feeling on the part of the distiller and the retailer who is prosecuted that they are being unfairly treated. In the present uncertainty of the subject many local authorities quite properly refuse to take up the

question, in view of the expense involved iu trying to prove their case to the satisfaction of the magistrate. The position of affairs with regard to spirits typifies the difficulty which constantly arises in connection with a large variety of articles of food and drink, both of home and foreign manufacture. The worst feature of the case is that the questions at issue never seem to get settled, despite all the efforts and expenditure of local authorities and public analysts-while the conscientious trader is heedlessly harassed and kept in a state of continued uncertainty. Government policy in the matter seems, so far to have been confined to appointing a series of committees or commissions, and afterwards doing nothing on their reports. These reports have however, been drawn up after Jong ana careful inquiries, and contain practical recommendations for legislation and for organisation of work done under the i_ a e of Food and Drugs Act by the Local Government Board, which is the Department concerted with the appointment of public analysts and the work of local autHorities. The subject was raised in Parliament last year by Sir Cuthbert Quilter and other members who are interesting themselves in the matter ; and we understand that steps are being taken to press it upon the attention of the House of Commons at an early date in the coming session.