The Gazette 1977

MARCH 1977

GAZETTE

LEGISLATION RELATING TO FOOD Presidential Address to Medico-Legal Society ( 1976 - 77) Thelma King, Solicitor I propose to deal briefly with the recent historical aspect of this subject, to outline the present statutory safeguards and to touch on the E.E.C. Directives. The first attempt to deal effectively with the problem was The Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878 which (Section 132) empowered a Medical Officer of Health to inspect food exposed for sale and if found unfit for human consumption to remove it and have it dealt with by a Justice. The following Section directed the Justice to condemn such food if it appeared to him to be unfit for human consumption. The owner or the person in whose possession or in whose premises the food was found was liable to a penalty not exceeding £20 for each item so condemned, or to imprisonment for a term of not more than three months. "(S. 132) Any sanitary officer of the sanitary authority may at all reasonable times inspect and examine any animal, carcase, meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables, corn, bread, flour, milk or butter exposed or being conveyed for sale, or deposited in any place for the purpo se of s a l e, and i n t e nd ed for the food of man. The proof that the same was not exposed or being conveyed or deposited for any such purpose, or was not intended for the food of man, will rest with the party charged. If any such animal carcase, meat, poultry, game, etc., appears to such sanitary officer to be diseased or unsound or unwholesome, or unfit for the food of man, he may seize and carry away the same himself, or by an assistant, in order to have the same dealt with by a Justice. Should he seize the same in a public thoroughfare, he may require the person conveying the same to give his own name and address and that of the owner of the article seized, and in default or if the officer has reasonable ground for suspecting the names or addresses so given to be false, may detain such person and give him into custody until his real name and address be ascertained. Any person giving a false name or address to any officer authorised to demand the same under this Section shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds. "If it appears to the Justice that any animal, carcase, meat, poultry, game, etc., so seized is diseased, or unsound or unwholesome or unfit for the food of man, he shall condemn the same and order it to be destroyed or be so disposed of as to prevent it from being exposed for sale or used for the food of man. The person to whom the same belongs or did belong at the time of exposure or conveyance for sale or in whose possession or on whose premises the same was found, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds for every animal carcase or fish or piece of meat flesh or fish or any poultry or game or for the parcel of fruit, vegetables, corn, bread or flour or for the milk or butter so condemned, or, at the discretion of the Justice without the infliction of a fine to imprisonment for a term of not more than three months." The Justice who, under this Section is empowered to convict the offender may be either the Justice who may have ordered the article to be disposed of or destroyed, or any other Justice having jurisdiction in the place. 50

These Sections have been repealed by the Health Act 1947. The term "Justice" included any police or Stipendiary Magistrate invested with the powers of a Justice of the Peace in England and any Divisional Justice in Ireland. By virtue of the Courts of Justice Act these powers were later vested in Peace Commissioners. The Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1875 Three years prior to the 1878 Act the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1875 had been enacted. The term "food" is defined therein as "every article used for food or drink by man, other than drugs or water". The Act imposes a penalty of £50 for the injurious adulteration of food intended for sale, but, if the person charged could show that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have discovered that the food was adulterated, he could not be convicted. The Act contains another Section which is rather interesting in that it is designed to protect the requirements of the individual purchaser rather than to set an objective standard. "(S.6) No person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance, and quality of the article demanded by such purchaser, under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds." The penalty for infringement of the provision is a fine not exceeding £20. Section 25 of that Act contains a provision which is somewhat similar to a provision in the Act which now governs our legislation, namely the Health Act 1947. "If the defendant in any prosecution under this Act proves to the satisfaction of the Justices or Court that he had purchased the article in question as the same in nature, substance and quality as that demanded of him by the prosecutor and with a written warranty to that effect, that he had no reason to believe at the time when he sold it, that the article was otherwise, and that he sold it in the same state as when he purchased it, he shall be discharged from the prosecution but shall be liable to pay the costs incurred by the prosecutor, unless he shall have given due notice to him that he will rely on the above defence." The abstraction of part of a food so as to affect its quality, substance or nature also rendered the vendor liable to a penalty. One wonders why such provisions were not availed of by the proponents of health foods. The Act makes provision for the appointment of analysts and any member of the public as well as the Medical Officer of Health was entitled to have an analysis of any item of food carried out by the public analyst on payment of the sum of 10s 6d. The person causing the analysis to be made was entitled to take proceedings for the recovery of the penalty before any Justice in Petty Sessions. This Act was clarified rather than amended by an Act of 1879 entitled "An Act to Amend the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1875". The Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1899 We now turn to another aspect of the sale of food as provided for in the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1899. The Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1875 and the Sale of Food and Drugs (Amendment) Act 1879 and the Margarine Act 1887 together with the Act I am about to refer to, namely the Sale of Foods and Drugs Act 1899 and the later Acts of 1907, 1935, and 1936 are collectively known as the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts.