34
REPORT OF THE PUBLIC ANALYST TO THE GOVT. OF MADRAS
amongst the food-vendors in his district, so that it may be taken as certain that
the proportion of adulteration in food-stuffs bought casually by the general
public is even higher than that revealed by my analyses. A. second point on
which I wish to comment is the total inadequacy of the fines inflicted. The
average fine is only Rs. 9 for all samples and in only one municipality does it
exceed Rs. 20. I believe that in many cases hawkers or petty vendors have been
prosecuted. Even in such cases it seems to me that the least fine that should
be inflicted for a first conviction, with any probability of its causing a definite
check to food adulteration is Rs. 20. Possibly an example will be of assistance
in justifying this figure. Presumably the poorest milkman will be one owning a
single cow. Normally he will get a yield of about two measures per day, the
proper price for which is one rupee. Supposing he adds to this milk half its
volume (one measure) of water per day—milks approximating to a composition of
two parts of milk to one part of water are very commonly sold. Such a milkman
makes an illegal profit of Rs. 15 a month in addition to his legitimate profit. It
is extremely unlikely that any vendor is likely to be sampled at shorter intervals
than two or three months ; accordingly a fine of Rs. 8 (the average fine inflicted
for milk adulteration) only represents about half of his illegitimate gain during
one month. When any food-vendor is detected selling adulterated foods, it
seems to me that in the absence of information to the contrary the|Magistrate is
justified in presuming that adulteration has been going on for some time and is
not an accidental cccurrence on one day. I am of opinion that the prosecution
should endeavour to give to the Magistrate some idea of what may reasonably be
considered the defendant's illegal profit and should ask that a fine covering at
least several months' profits should be inflicted. Such a procedure is usual in
England, where if not so informed a Magistrate will normally ask the Prosecuting
Inspector for his opinion as to the standing of the defendant so that the fine may
be apportioned to his means. I am informed that information on these lines is
always given to the Magistrate dealing with food adulteration cases at Coimbatore.
Probably this accounts largely for the fact that this is the only area in which
substantial fines have been regularly imposed. There must be very many vendors
of adulterated food who, if fined a hundred rupees for a first offence, would have
done no more than give up the profits that they have made by illegal means
during a short period of trading.
During the year the highest fine imposed was Rs. 75 in Coimbatore in
connection with one of the worst cases of adulterated milk within my experience.
This was sold as genuine buffalo milk—a milk normally very rich in cream. On
analysis it was found to consist of approximately equal proportions of separated
(machine-skimmed) milk and water.
Summarized particulars of the action taken by the various municipalities in
connection with the adulterated samples are given in the appendix. It will be
seen that in general, prosecutions have been instituted in connection with
adulterated articles of food. It seems unfortunate that in the case of Virudhu-
nagar which is a big distributary centre for adulterated tea, prosecutions were
not instituted in the tea cases. A few maximum fines on large dealers would be
of great assistance in checking this form of adulteration.
The municipalities which are entitled to send 15 samples per month for
analysis pay to Government a contribution of Rs. 720 per year. When the
Act was introduced some municipalities protested that the charge was
excessive. The following table shows the total amount of fines recovered by
each municipality :—
Number and name of place.
Amount of fine
recovered.
R s .
1. Madras Corporation . . .
1,323
2. Calicut Municipality . . .
31
3 . C o i m b a t o r e . . .
665
4. Guntur
.
.
.
. . .
5. Karaikudi . . .
. . .