The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-07-26 00:00:00

ADULTERATION OF BUTTER.

On the shove subject the following letters have appeared
In The 11111,8

I noticed a day or two ago in Th. Times a report of
a London medicol analyst., in which it was stated that
many san.ples of butter had been examined, but that
none hat been found adulterated. Now, there is one
substance used for adul.eratibg butter which it will
probably puzzle many an analyst to detect, and that is
common fat. I hove received the following in.ormation
on the subject from a high commercial authority in the
City which may interest, though not please, the butter-
eating public.
Good genuine butter is said to be worth about £l4O
a ton, while the fot with whioh it is not umrequently
intermixed bi the extent of 10 per cent is worth only
about 13i a ton. Ibis fit is lsrgely supplier from the
ki.c..ens .1 the rcetropolis by the c.m10., who consider
it as heir perquisite, and is sent to Holland, whore it
undergoes a progeos of refining, after which it is re-
turned to London to be added to our butter.

Doe kind of adulteration may not be injurious to
health, but neverthiless it is adulteration ; and you
will perceive from the price. abovementioned that the
bmiineee must yield considerable profit.—.l am, &c., Y.
July la.

Nothing is so popular as the old delusion that butter
is adulierated with larder or her fats.
If your correspondent " Y." will try the experiment
of m.xing any fats with butter, he win l find that the
butter becomes lard or the other fats used. In fact,
he will di.cover he. has been adulterating his lard or
the other fats, as the Mate and flavour of these articles
most predominate.
The dripping referred tu, as exported to Holland, is
consumed as an article of food.
I do not claim that the butter trade is above tempts.
tion more than others, but, as a matter of fact, I do
may the problem has not yet been soloed how to mix
anything will butter (except water and salt) without
bringing the whole down to the lower point.
In justice to those connected with the sale of this
important article of consumption, I hope you will give
this a place in your next gmblication.—l am, &c.,
THOMAS R. DOWNFS, Provision Broker and Secretory
to tie Provision Trade Subscription Rooms, Tooley-
street.
254 Tooleystreet, London, July lit

The writer of the letter in The Times of this day has
been singularly misinformed on the subject of which
he writes, and the City authority to whom he refers
could have had no practical knowledge of the butter
trade. Butter is never mixed with kitchen fat, to
which substance it Ii chyrnically unfit for cohesion,
and incspab'e of assimilation by being beaten or
worked together. Fatty animal oulvtance is unfitted
for admixture with butter. After being rendered by
heat, the fibre and character is then chymimdly
altered.
During the grass season in our conntry—l. e., May
to September inclusive—it would be difficult to find
adulterated butter in London; in fact, the retailers
could not. eell it, through its bad condition, in a warm
temperature; but in the coldest months fat is collected
from the butchers here, sent to Holland, there mixed in
an unheated prlctse with butter, salt, and water, and
sent for sale to London and elsewhere. This sub.
stance, in fair order, is sweet and not unwholesome,
and is known in the trade as "bench." A similar
article also comes from Belgmtn, in roll., to imitate
the fresh butter sent 'luring the winter from Ostend.
But of low class, or mixed butter, a very small (pan.
tity is sold, and last winter lees than ever, through the
German buyers keenly competing for it.
Best f'eeh butter cods the retailers todlay 17(1. per
lb. in London ; best Doreet, £136 per ton ; hest Botch,
£128; best Normanny, £131; best Brittany, £ll2 per
ton. The a fire claeses of butter represent the bulk
of what is consumed in London just now. Ritphen
rat is coilected and retrole 1 in chandlers shops as
" dripplsg "at fkl. per lb.—l am, Bnc.,
WILLIAM WILLTY.
Hayne.stseist, West Smithfield.