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HONGKONG.
MINUTES RELATING TO CONDENSED SKIMMED MILK.
6
No. 1911
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His
Excellency the Governor, May 25th, 1911.
The following are the medical opinions which induced the Government to introduce the Sale of Food and Drugs Amendment Bill:-
I.
Head of the Sanitary Department,-I find that the Chinese market is being flooded with consignments of condensed skimmed milk which is being retailed at about 15 cents a tin and that even the sellers in the shops are unaware that it differs in any material respect from condensed whole milk, which sells for 20 to 25 cents a tin. I am told that this cheap con- deused milk is being largely taken into use to feed Chinese infants, and in view of the already enormously high mortality among such infants I think that the Government should be asked to introduce further legislation to prevent the sale of such skimmed milk except under very strict regulations in regard to the labelling of the tins, not merely to th: effect that it is "skimmed milk”—a terin which the Chinese purchaser would probably not understand-but also to the effect, in Chinese, that such milk is quite unsuitable for the feading of infants.
The Imperial Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1899 requires tins of condensed skimmed milk to be clearly labelled with; the words "machine-skimmuned milk" or "skimmed milk' as the case may be, but this is no protection to the Chinese purchaser, who will probably have no knowledge of English and whose experience of milk in any form is much more limited than that of the British working-man.
One brand of this milk has a "special notice" in English that this milk is suitable for all ordinary purposes; but like all brands of skimmed milk it should not be used for the feeding of infants", but another brand of the saine class of machine-skimmed milk, sold in the same shop, is labelled "Baby brand", and is evidently intended for the feeling of infants, for which it is most uusuitable, unless supplemented by crean which would be outside the means of the people who buy this stuff.
The Imperial Government has not hesitated to introduce specia! legislation in regard to special articles of food, e.g., Butter, when its appearance, taste, etc., were cleverly imitated by a substance ("inargarine ") prepared from other fats and I think that in view of the great importance of the question of condensed tinned milks in their relation to infant feed- ing that a special Ordinance should be introduced to require the proper labelling, in the Chinese character, of all forms of milk.
FRANCIS CLARK, Medical Officer of Health.
2nd March, 1911.