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BUTTER AND MARGARINE ACT 1907
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CHAPTER 21.
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An Act to make further provision with respect to the Manufacture, Importation, and Sale of Butter and Margarine and similar Substances. [21st August 1907.]
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BE it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
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Registration of factories and consignments.
50 & 51 Vict. c. 29.
62 & 63 Vict. c. 51.
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1.—(1) The provisions of section nine of the Margarine Act, 1887, as amended by section seven of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, relating to the registration of manufactories of margarine, shall, with the necessary adaptations, apply to—
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(a) Butter factories, that is to say, any premises on which by way of trade butter is blended, reworked, or subjected to any other treatment, but not so as to cease to be butter; and
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(b) Any premises on which there is manufactured any milk-blended butter (that is to say, any mixture produced by mixing or blending butter with milk or cream other than condensed milk or cream) or on which there is carried on the business of a wholesale dealer in milk-blended butter.
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(2) The provisions of section seven of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, relating to registers of consignments of margarine, shall, with the necessary adaptations, apply to consignments of milk-blended butter.
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(3) Premises shall not be used as a butter factory if they form part of or communicate, otherwise than by a public street or road, with any other premises which are required to be registered under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts or under paragraph (b) of this section, and if any premises are so used the occupier thereof shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and the local authority shall remove from the register of butter factories kept by them any premises used as a butter factory contrary to this provision:
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Provided that this subsection shall not apply to premises which on the first day of January one thousand nine hundred and seven were being used as a butter factory and formed part of or communicated with premises which were then registered under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, if and so long as the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries so direct.
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Inspection of factories
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2.—(1) Any officer of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries or of the local Government Board shall have power to enter at all reasonable times any premises registered under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts or this Act, and to inspect any process of manufacture, blending, reworking, or treatment used therein, and to take samples for analysis of any butter, margarine, margarine cheese, milk-blended butter, or of any article capable of being used in the manufacture, treatment, or adulteration of any such article as aforesaid.
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(2) An officer of a local authority who is authorised to procure samples under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts shall, if specially authority in that behalf by the local authority, have the like powers of entry, inspection, and sampling as regards any premises registered with the authority as a butter factory.
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(3) If the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have reason to believe—
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(a) that oh any unregistered premises, there is carried on any process of manufacture, blending, reworking, or treatment or any wholesale dealing which under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts or this Act cannot be carried on except on registered premises; or
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(b) that on any premises butter is by way of trade either made or stored, and that for the purposes of those Acts inspection is desirable,
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the Board may specially authorise any officer of the Board to enter the premises, and in such case the officer shall have the like powers of entry, inspection, and sampling as if the premises were registered.
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(4) Where under this section a special authority is required an officer of the Board or of a local authority shall not be entitled to exercise any of, his powers under this section unless, if so requested by or on behalf of the occupier of the premises to be entered, he produces his authority.
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(5) Subsection (2) of section seven of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, is hereby repealed.
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Prohibition of adulterants in butter factories.
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3. If any substance intended to be used for the adulteration of butter is found in any butter factory, the occupier of the factory shall be guilty of an offence, under this Act, and if any oil or fat capable of being so used is found it shall be deemed to be intended to be so used, unless the contrary is proved.
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Limit of moisture in butter, margarine, and milk-blended butter.
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4.—(1) If any butter which, when prepared for sale or consignment, contains more than sixteen per cent. of water is in any butter factory, or if any margarine which, when prepared for sale or consignment, contains more than sixteen per cent. of water is in any margarine factory, or if any such butter or margarine is consigned from a butter factory or margarine factory, the occupier of the factory or consignor, as the case may be, shall (whether the excess of moisture is due to adulteration or not) be guilty of an offence under this Act, unless the occupier or consignor proves to the satisfaction of the court that the butter or margarine was not made, blended, reworked, or treated in the factory.
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(2) Any person who manufactures, sells, or exposes or offers for sale, or has in his possession for the purpose of sale, any milk-blended butter which contains more than twenty-four per cent. of water, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act.
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Provisions as to the importation of butter, margarine, and milk-blended butter.
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5.—(1) There shall be included in the list of articles importation of which is made an offence by section one of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, the following articles:—
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(e) Butter containing more than sixteen per cent. of water;
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(f) Margarine containing more than sixteen per cent. of water, or more than ten per cent. of butter fat;
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(g) Milk-blended butter containing more than twenty-four per cent. of water;
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(h) Milk-blended butter, except in packages conspicuously marked with such name as may be approved by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for the purpose;
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(j) Butter, margarine, or milk-blended butter which contains a preservative prohibited by any regulation made under this Act, or an amount of a preservative in excess of the limit allowed by any such regulation;
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and in the said section the words “adulterated or impoverished butter (other than margarine) or”, and the words “butter or” shall be repealed.
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(2) The maximum fine for an offence under the said section one, as amended by this section, shall, where the article in respect of which the offence was committed is butter, margarine, margarine cheese, or milk-blended butter, be either such as is provided in the said section one, or, at the election of the Commissioners of Customs, a fine equal to the value of the goods imported bearing the same mark or description, to be estimated and taken according to the rate and price for which goods of the like kind but of the best quality were sold at or about the time of the importation.
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(3) In any proceeding under the said section one as amended by this section the certificate of the principal chemist of the Government Laboratories, or, if the person who made the analysis be called as a witness, the evidence of that person, that an imported substance is margarine or milk-blended butter shall raise a presumption, until the contrary is proved, that the substance is margarine or milk-blended butter, and the defendant shall not be entitled to require the person who made the analysis to be called as a witness unless he shall, at least three clear days before the return day, give notice to the prosecutor that he requires his attendance, and deposit with the prosecutor a sum sufficient to cover the reasonable costs and expenses of his attendance, which costs and expenses shall be paid by the defendant in the event of his conviction.
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(4) Where a sample taken under the said section one as amended by this section is certified by the principal chemist to be margarine or milk-blended butter the Commissioners of Customs shall upon receiving the certificate forthwith notify the importer thereof.
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Regulations as to milk-solids in butter.
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6. The power of making regulations under section four of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, shall extend to making regulations as to the proportion of any milk-solid other than milk-fat in any sample of butter or milk-blended butter.
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Regulations as to preservatives.
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7.—(1) The Local Government Board may, after such inquiry as they deem necessary, make regulations for prohibiting the use as a preservative of any substance specified in such regulations in the manufacture or preparation for sale of butter, margarine, or milk-blended butter, or for limiting the extent to which, either generally or as regards any particular substance or substances, preservatives may be used in the manufacture or preparation for sale of butter, margarine, or milk-blended butter.
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(2) Any regulations made under this section shall be notified in the London, Edinburgh, or Dublin Gazette as the case may require, and shall also be made known in such other manner as the Local Government Board may direct.
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(3) Any person who manufactures, sells, or exposes or offers for sale, or has in his possession for the purpose of sale, any butter, margarine, or milk-blended butter which contains a preservative prohibited by a regulation under this section or an amount of a preservative in excess of the limit allowed by any such regulation, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act.
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Marking of wrappers, &c., used in connection with Margarine.
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8. If in any wrapper enclosing margarine, or on any package containing margarine, or on any label attached to a parcel of margarine, or in any advertisement or invoice of margarine a person dealing in margarine describes it by any name other than either “margarine,” or a name combining the word “margarine” with a fancy or other descriptive name approved by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and printed in type not larger than and in the same colour as the word “margarine,” he shall be guilty of an offence under this Act.
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Regulation of sale of milk-blended butter.
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9.—(1) Milk-blended butter shall be dealt with under such name or names as may be approved by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and under the conditions applicable to the sale or description of margarine, with the substitution of an approved name for the word “margarine,” and with this modification, that, in any case where, in order to comply with those conditions, the article is delivered to the purchaser in a wrapper, there shall, in addition to the approved name, be printed on the wrapper in such manner as the Board approve such description of the article, setting out the percentage of moisture or water contained therein, as may be approved by the Board.
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(2) Milk-blended butter, whenever forwarded by any public conveyance, shall be duly consigned under the name which, as respects the article consigned, has been approved by the Board under this section; subject to this modification, section eight of the Margarine Act, 1887, shall apply to milk-blended butter in like manner as it applies to margarine.
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(3) If any person deals with, sells, or exposes or offers for sale, or has in his possession for the purpose of sale, or describes any milk-blended butter contrary to the provisions of this section, he shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, but-any defence which would be a defence under section seven of the Margarine Act, 1887, as respects margarine, shall be a defence under this section as respects milk-blended butter.
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Names of margarine, &c.
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10. A name shall not be approved by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for use in connection with margarine if it refers to or is suggestive of butter or anything connected with the dairy interest, nor shall such a name be approved as a name under which milk-blended butter may be imported or dealt with.
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Penalties for offences.
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11.—(1) Any person guilty of an offence under this Act shall be liable on conviction under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts for a first offence to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds and for a second offence to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds and for a third or any subsequent offence to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, and in cases where imprisonment can be inflicted under section seventeen of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, to such imprisonment as is by that section authorised.
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(2) Section five of the Margarine Act, 1887 (which exempts employers from liability in certain cases), and section eleven of the same Act (which relates to the appropriation of penalties), and section twelve of the same Act (which relates to proceedings under that Act), shall apply to proceedings under this Act, with the substitution of references to this Act for references to the Margarine Act, 1887.
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Amendment of s. 8 of Margarine Act, 1887.
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12. Except in the Administrative County of London, section eight of the Margarine Act, 1887, shall have effect as if the words “inspector of weights and measures” were inserted after the word “nuisances.”
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Definition of margarine.
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13.—(1) For the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts and this Act the expression “margarine” shall mean any article of food, whether mixed with butter or not, which resembles butter and is not milk-blended butter.
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(2) The above definition shall be substituted for the definition of margarine in the Margarine Act, 1887.
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Short title, construction, and commencement.
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14.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Butter and Margarine Act, 1907, and shall be construed as one with the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, and may be cited with the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts as the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, 1875 to 1907.
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(2) This Act shall come into operation on the first day of January one thousand nine hundred and eight.
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