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ADULTERATION (from Lat. adulterare, t...
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See also:ADULTERATION (from See also:Lat. adulterare, to See also:defile or falsify)
, the See also:act of debasing a commercial commodity with the See also:object of passing it off as or under the name of a pure or genuine commodity for illegitimate profit, or the substitution of an inferior See also:article for a See also:superior one, to the detriment of the purchaser
.
Although the See also:term is mainly used in connexion with the falsification of articles of See also:food, drink or drugs, and is so dealt with in this article, the practice of See also:adulteration extends to almost all manufactured products and even to unmanufactured natural substances, and (as was once suggested by See also: III . Stat . 6) entitled " the See also:pillory and tumbrel " was framed for the See also:express purpose of protecting the public from the dishonest dealings of bakers, vintners, brewers, butchers and others . This statute is the first in which the adulteration of human food is specially noticed and prohibited; it seems to have been enforced with more or less rigour until the See also:time of See also:Anne, when it was repealed (1709) . According to the See also:Liber Albus it was strictly observed in the days of See also:Edward I., for it states that: " If any See also:default shall be found in the bread of a See also:baker in the See also:city, the first time, let him be See also:drawn upon a See also:hurdle from the See also:Guildhall to his own See also:house through the See also:great See also:street where there be most See also:people assembled, and through the great streets which are most dirty, with the faulty loaf See also:hanging from his See also:neck; if a second time he shall be found committing the same offence, let him be drawn from the Guildhall through the great street of Cheepe in the manner aforesaid to the pillory, and let him be put upon the pillory, and remain there at least one See also:hour in the See also:day; and the third time that such default shall be found, he shall be drawn, and the See also:oven shall be pulled down, and the baker made to foreswear the trade in the city for ever." The assize of 1634 provides that " if there be any manner of See also:person or persons, which shall by any false wayes or meanes, sell any meale under the kinge's subjects, either by mixing it deceitfully or sell any musty or corrupted See also:meal, which may be to the hurte and infection of See also:man's See also:body, or use any false See also:weight, or any deceitful wayes or meanes, and so deceive the subject, for the first offence he shall be grievously punished, the second he shall loose his meale, for the third offence he shall suffer the See also:judgment of the pillory and the See also:fourth time he shall foreswere the See also:town wherein he dwelleth." Vintners, spicers, grocers, butchers, regrators and others were subject to the like punishment for dishonesty in their commercial dealings—it being thought that the pillory, by appealing to the sense of shame, was far more deterrent of such crimes than See also:fine or imprisonment . In the reign of Edward the See also:Confessor a knavish See also:brewer of the city of See also:Chester was taken See also:round the town in the See also:cart in which the refuse of the privies had been collected . See also:Ale-tasters had to look after the ale and test it by spilling some on to a wooden seat, sitting on the wet See also:place in their leathern breeches, the stickiness of the '" See also:residue obtained by evaporation " affording the See also:evidence of purity or otherwise . If See also:sugar had been added the taster adhered to the See also:bench; pure See also:malt See also:beer was not considered to yield an adhesive See also:extract . In 1553, the See also:lord See also:mayor of See also:London ordered a See also:jury of five or six vintners to See also:rack and draw off the suspected wine of another vintner, and to ascertain what drugs or ingredients they found in the said wine or cask to sophisticate the same . At another time eight pipes of wine were ordered to be destroyed because, on racking off, bundles of weeds, pieces of See also:sulphur match, and " a See also:kind of See also:gravel mixture sticking to the casks " had been found . Similar records have come down from the See also:continental See also:European countries . In 1390 an See also:Augsburg wine-seller was sentenced to be led out of the city with his hands See also:bound and a rope round his neck; in 1400 two others were branded and otherwise severely punished; in 1435 " were the taverner See also:Christian Corper and his wife put in a cask in which he sold false wine, and then ex-posed in the pillory .
The punishment was adjudged because they had roasted See also:pears and put them into new sour wine, in See also:order to sweeten the wine
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Some pears were hung round their necks like unto a Paternoster." In Biebrich on the See also:Rhine, in 1482, a wine-falsifier was condemned to drink six quarts of his own wine; from this he died
.
In Frankfurt, casks in which false wine had been found were placed with a red See also:flag on the knacker's cart, " the jailer marched before, the See also:rabble after, and when they came to the See also:river they See also:broke the casks and tumbled the stuff into the stream." In See also:France successive ordonnances from 1330 to 1672 forbade the mixing of two wines together under the See also:penalty of a fine and the See also:confiscation of the wine
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Modern See also:British Legislation.—In modem times the See also:English See also:parliament has dealt frequently with the subject of food adulteration
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In 1725 it was provided that " no dealer in See also:tea ormanufacturer or See also:dyer thereof, or pretending so to be, shall counterfeit or adulterate tea, or cause or procure the same to be counterfeited or adulterated, or shall alter, fabricate or manufacture tea with terra-japonica, or with any See also:drug or drugs whatsoever; nor shall mix or cause or procure to be mixed with tea any leaves other than the leaves of tea or other ingredients whatsoever, on See also:pain of forfeiting and losing the tea so counterfeited, adulterated, altered, fabricated, manufactured or mixed, and any other thing or things whatsoever added thereto, or mixed or used therewith, and also the sum of boo." Six years afterwards, in 1730–1731, a further act was passed prescribing a penalty for " sophisticating " tea; it recites that several See also:ill-disposed persons do frequently dye, fabricate or manufacture very great quantities of sloe leaves, See also:liquorice leaves, and the leaves of tea that have been before used, or the leaves of other trees, shrubs or See also:plants in See also:imitation of tea, and do likewise mix, See also:colour, stain and dye such leaves and likewise tea with terra-japonica, sugar, See also:molasses, clay, See also:logwood, and with other ingredients, and do sell and vend the same as true and real tea, to the See also:prejudice of the health of his See also:majesty's subjects, the diminution of the See also:revenue and to the ruin of the See also:fair trader
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This act provides that for every See also:pound of adulterated tea found in See also:possession of any person, a sum of £10 shall be forfeited
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It was followed by one passed in 1766-1767, which increased the penalty to imprisonment for not less than six nor more than twelve months
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As regards See also:coffee, an act of 1718 recited that " See also:divers evil-disposed persons have at the time or soon after the roasting of coffee made use of See also:water, grease, butter or such-like materials, where-by the same is rendered unwholesome and greatly increased in weight," and a penalty of £2o is enacted
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In 1803 an act refers to the addition of burnt, scorched or roasted peas, beans or other grains or See also:vegetable substances prepared in imitation of coffee or cocoa, to coffee or cocoa, and fixes the penalty for the offence at boo, but subsequently permission was given to coffee or cocoa dealers also to See also:deal in scorched or roasted See also:corn, peas, beans or parsnips whole and not ground, crushed or powdered, under certain See also:excise restrictions
.
An act passed in 1816 See also:relating to beer and See also:porter provides that no brewer of or dealer in or retailer of beer " shall receive or have in his possession, or make or mix with any worts or beer, any liquor, extract or other preparation for the purpose of darkening the colour of worts or beer, other than See also: It was but natural that they should look primarily after the dutiable articles and not after those that brought no revenue to the See also:state . About the See also:middle of the 19th See also:century many articles, however, paid import See also:duty; butter, for instance, paid 5s. per hundredweight; See also:cheese from 1s . 6d. to as . 6d.; flour or meal of all kinds, 44d.; See also:ginger, 1os.; See also:isinglass, 5s.; and so on . Sensational and doubtless largely exaggerated statements were from time to time published concerning the food See also:supply of the nation . F . C . Accum (1769–1838) by his See also:Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons (182o), and particularly an See also:anonymous writer of a See also:book entitled Deadly Adulteration and Slow Poisoning unmasked, or Disease and See also:Death in the Pot and the See also:Bottle, in which the bloodempoisoning and See also:life-destroying adulterations of wines, See also:spirits, beer, bread, flour, tea, sugar, spices; cheesemongery, pastry, See also:confectionery, medicines, &c . &c., are laid open to the public (1830), roused the public See also:attention . In 185o a physician, Dr . Arthui H . Hassall, had the happy See also:idea of looking at ground coffee through the See also:microscope .
Eminent chemists had previously found great difficulty in establishing any satisfactory chemical distinction between coffee, See also:chicory and other adulterants of coffee; the microscope immediately showed the structural difference of the particles, however small
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The results of Hassall's See also:examinations were embodied in a See also:paper which was read before the Botanical Society of London and was reported in The Times, 1850
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A paper on the microscopic examination of sugar, showing the presence in that article of innumerable living mites, followed and attracted much attention
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Hassall was in consequence commissioned by See also: Nevertheless complaints soon arose that it inflicted considerable injury and imposed heavy and undeserved penalties upon some respectable tradesmen, mainly owing to the " want of a clear understanding of what does and does not constitute adulteration," and in some cases to conflicting decisions and the inexperience of analysts . Again a parliamentary committee was appointed which took a See also:mass of evidence, the outcome of its inquiries being the Saleof Food and Drugs Act 1875, which is in force at the present day, subject to amendments and additions made at 1875 later See also:dates . This act avoided the term "adulteration" altogether and endeavoured to give a clearer description of punishable offences: Section 6 . " No person shall sell to the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance and quality of the article demanded by the purchaser under a penalty not exceeding X20; provided that an offence shall not be deemed to be committed under this section in the following cases: (1) where any See also:matter or ingredient not injurious to health has been added to the food or drug because the same is required for the See also:production or preparation thereof as an article of commerce, in a state See also:fit for See also:carriage or See also: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 food or drug is a proprietary See also:medicine, or is the subject of a patent in force and is supplied in the state required by the See also:specification of the patent; (3) where the food or drug is compounded as in the act mentioned; (4) where the food or drug is unavoidably mixed with some extraneous matter in the See also:process of collection or preparation." Section 8 . " No person shall be guilty of any such offence as aforesaid in respect to the sale of an article of food or a drug mixed with any matter or ingredient not injurious to health, and not intended fraudulently to increase its bulk, weight or measure, or conceal its inferior quality, if at the time of delivering such article or drug he shall supply to the person receiving the same a See also:notice, by a See also:label distinctly and legibly written or printed on or with the article or drug, to the effect that the same is mixed." The act made the appointment of analysts compulsory upon the city of London, the vestries, See also:county See also:quarter sessions and town See also:councils or boroughs having a See also:separate See also:police See also:establishment . For the See also:protection of the vendor, samples that had been See also:purchased by the inspectors for analysis were to be offered to be divided into three parts, one to be submitted to the See also:analyst, the second to be given to the vendor to be dealt with by him as he might deem fit; and the third to be retained by the inspector, and, at the discretion of the See also:magistrate See also:hearing any See also:summons, to be submitted, in case of dispute, to the commissioners of inland revenue for analysis by the chemical laboratory at See also:Somerset House . The public analyst had to give a certificate, couched in a prescribed See also:form, to the person submitting any See also:sample for analysis, which certificate was to be taken as evidence of the facts therein stated, in order to render the proceedings as inexpensive as practicable . If the See also:defendant in any See also:prosecution could prove to the See also:satisfaction of the See also:court that he had purchased the article under a See also:warranty of genuineness, and that he sold it in the same state as when he purchased it, he was to be discharged from the prosecution, but no See also:provision was made that in that event the giver of the warranty should be proceeded against . Section 6, quoted above, gave rise to an immense amount of litigation, and already in 1879 it was found necessary to pass an amending act, making it clear that if a See also:purchase 1879. was effected by an inspector with the intent to get the purchased article analysed, he was as much " prejudiced " if obtaining a sophisticated article as a private purchaser who purchased for his own use and consumption . The amending act also dealt in some small measure with a difficulty which immediately after passing the act was found to arise in ascertaining whether any article was " of the nature, substance and quality demanded by the purchaser " — " in determining whether an offence has been committed under section 6 by selling spirits not adulterated otherwise than by the admixture of water, it shall be a See also:good See also:defence to prove that such admixture has not reduced the spirit more than twenty-five degrees under See also:proof for See also:brandy, See also:whisky or See also:rum, or thirty-five under proof for See also:gin." Almost insuperable difficulties as to the meaning of " nature, substance and quality " subsequently arose as regards every conceivable food material . As it was obviously impossible for parliament Act of 1860 . to define every article, to See also:lay down limits of See also:composition within which it might vary, to specify the substances or ingredients that might enter into it, to limit the proportions of the unavoidable impurities that might be contained in it, the duty to do all this was left to the individual analysts . An enormous number of substances had to be analysed until sufficient evidence had been accumulated for the giving of correct opinions or certificates . Endless disputes unavoidably arose, See also:friction with manufacturers and traders, unfortunately also with the referees at the inland revenue, who for many years were altogether out of See also:touch with the analysts . Conflicting decisions come to by various benches of magistrates upon similar cases, allowing of the legal sale of an article in one district which in another had been declared illegal, rendered the position of merchants often unsatisfactory . It was not recognized by parliament until almost a quarter of a century had elapsed that it was not enough to compel See also:local authorities to get samples analysed, but that it was also the duty of parliament to lay down specific and clear instructions that might enable the officers to do their See also:work . This has only been very partially done even at the present time . A curious See also:condition of things arose out of the definition of "food " given in the act of 1875: " The term food shall include Mimi. every article used for food or drink by man, other than ties of drugs or water." It had been the practice of bakers adminls- to add alum to the flour from which bread was teat/on. manufactured, in order to whiten the bread, and to permit the use of damaged and discoloured flour . This practice had been strongly condemned by chemists and physicians, because it rendered the bread indigestible and injurious to health . Shortly after the passing of the Food Act this objectionable practice was stamped out by numerous prosecutions, and alumed bread now no longer occurs . A large trade, however, continued to be carried on in See also:baking powders consisting of alum and See also:sodium bicarbonate . It was naturally thought that, as baking See also:powder is sold with the obvious intention that it may enter into food, the vendors could also be proceeded against . The high court, however, held that, baking powder in itself not being an article of food, its sale could not be an offence under the Food Act . This See also:anomaly was removed by a later act: Under section 6 of the act of 1875 a defendant could be convicted, even if he had no guilty knowledge of the fact that the article he had sold was adulterated . In the repealed Adulteration Act of 1872 the words " to the knowledge of " were inserted, and they were found fatal to obtaining convictions . The general See also:rule of the law is that the See also:master is not criminally responsible for the acts of his servants if they are done without his know-ledge or authority, but under the Food Act It was held (Brown v . See also:Foot, 1892, 66 L.T . 649) that a master was liable for the watering of See also:milk by one of his servants, although he had published a warning to them that they would be dismissed if found doing so . Milk might be adulterated during transit on the See also:rail-way without the knowledge of the owner or See also:receiver, and yet the vendor was liable to conviction . When it is brought to the knowledge of a purchaser that the article sold to him is not of the nature, substance or quality he demanded, the sale is not to the prejudice of the purchaser . The notice may be given verbally or by a label supplied with the article . A common law notice may also be given . In See also:Sandys v . Small, 1878, 3 Q.B.D . 449, a publican had displayed a See also:placard within the See also:inn to the effect that the spirits sold in his establishment were watered . This was held, as it were, to See also:con-See also:tract him out of the Food Act .
Similarly, in the case of butters that had been adulterated with milk, the vendors, by giving a general notice in the See also:shop, evaded punishment under the act
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A notice, is, however, of no avail if given under section 8 of the act, if the admixture has been made for fraudulent purposes
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In Liddiart v
.
Reece, 44 J.P
.
233, 188o, an inspector asked for coffee and received a packet with a label describing it as a mixture of coffee and chicory
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It was sold at the See also:price of coffee
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It turned out to be a mixture containing 40% of chicory
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The high court held that this was an excessive quan-tity, and was added for the purpose of fraudulently increasing the bulk or weight
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In another case, however (See also:Otter v
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Edgley, 1893, 57 J.P
.
457), where an inspector had asked for See also:French coffee and had been supplied with a mixture containing 6o % of chicory, the article being labelled as a mixture, the high court held that there was no evidence of fraud, and, in the case of cocoa, a mixture containing as little as 30% of cocoa and 7o% of See also:starch and sugar, the label stating it to be a mixture, was held to have been legally sold (See also: 653) . In this case the label notifying the admixture was hidden by a See also:sheet of opaque white paper, nor had the purchaser's attention been called to it, but the price of the article was much See also:lower than that of pure cocoa . It is seen from these few instances, taken at See also:random out of scores, that this clause of the act was far from clear and was very variously interpreted at the courts . The warranty clause (clause 25) also gave rise to an immense amount of litigation . In the earlier high court decisions a very narrow See also:interpretation was given to the term " written warranty," but in later years a wider view prevailed . A general See also:contract to supply a pure article is not a sufficient warranty unless with every delivery there is something to identify the delivery as See also:part of the contract . An See also:invoice containing merely a description of an article as " lard " or " pepper " is not a warranty; but if there be added the words " guaranteed pure " it is a sufficient warranty . A label upon an article is not in itself a warranty, but a label bearing the words " pure " or " unadulterated," coupled with an invoice which could be identified with the label, together were held to form an effective warranty . As many thousands of samples were annually submitted by inspectors under the act to the analysts who had been appointed in 237 boroughs and districts, a very large number of cases led to disputes of law or fact, about seventy high court cases being |