First report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into arsenical poisoning [1900] from the consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink.

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning

Date:: 1901-1903

Credit: First report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into arsenical poisoning [1900] from the consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

63/872 page 39

$31> PART VI. PRESENT MEANS OF OFFICIAL CONTROL OVER PURITl OF FOOD, IN RELATION TO ARSENIC. 146. Under this heading we summarise the effect of the evidence which we have obtained from various witnesses regarding the means ..i^'it^ii^i of official control over the purity of food which is at present available :— [a] to prevent ingredients of food which are contaminated by arsenic from being used by the food manufacturer. [b] to prevent finished food products contaminated by arsenic from being sold to the public. Control over the Manufacture of Food ok of Food Ingredients. 147. The existing machinery of public health administration provides Tattersaii, 296-310. little if any system of official control over the proceedings of manu- ho'®°'io'i?)13^^^ facturers of food or of food ingredients. The fact that on certain xcech, 9i;j,-9,9246-51. premises food or its ingredients are made or prepared, does not of fjf^^y^\]%f:if'n,5S0, itself entitle the officials of County, Borough, Urban or Rural 11^48-8.3.' District Councils, who are charged with the local administration of the Acts relating to public health and sale of food, to enter the premises, to require information concerning processes of food manufacture, or to demand samples for analysis, with a view of ascertaining if risk of contamination by any deleterious substance arises and whether suitable precautions are taken. Similarly, an individual or a company who starts the manufacture of some new composition of food, sold under a fancy name, is under no obligation to satisfy the local or any other public authority that the composition and its ingredients are wholesome. There are a few instances in which local authorities possess power of control at par- ticular places where food is manufactm-ed : for example, the sanitary authorities of certain districts have obtained powers, under local Acts, to supervise the conditions of manufacture of ice-cream. Broadly speaking, however, the control which can be exercised becomes availale only after the manufacture of the food is completed, and it is on sale to the public. 148. Officials of Government departments possess and exercise powers of entry into factories for specified purposes (as for example, under Factory Act, with reference to conditions affecting the health and safety of the persons employed) and their powers, in certain instances, enable them to institute inquiries into methods of food manufacture. Where margarine and margarine cheese are made, Sale or i-ood and Drugs 'officers of the Board of Agriculture have the right to inspect any ^^' -'^99,8./. process of manufacture, take samples, and examine books showing the destination o^' margarine or margarine cheese sent out from the factory With regard to articles subject to duty, various powers of inspection and sampling are conferred upon revenue officers. At breweries,. Officers of Excise are in position to ascertain generally Pnmros. . (,526-6708. what .materials are used in the preparation of beer, and, practically Delkin^iso?.' speaking, they are there able to take samples of any ingredient for examination in the Covernment Laboratory. Samples of substances intended for use as additions to beer—such as preservatives—are required to be submitted to the Board of Inland Revenue, whose sanction must be obtained before they can be used. Although similar sanction is not required before particular substances can be used in brewing, yet, by the Customs and Revenue Act of 1888 the Commissioners of the Treasury have power to prohibit, by issue of an$