LABELS'THAT DECEIVE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 102, 2 May 1930, Page 9

LABELS'THAT DECEIVE

A Vigilance committee

THE CONSUMER'S -INTEREST

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 18th March. Following the suggestion, put forward 'at the meeting held recently under the auspices of the Empire Day Movement to protest against the use of misleading butter labels, a Butter Consumers' Vigilance Committee, with ■headquarters at Cecil Chambers, Strand, was duly constituted at a meeting held ' in London on 14th March. Its object is ■ to keep watch on consumers' interests ■ in any measures that may be taken in connection with the marking and ;sale of butter. : •. ■ • The members of tho committee are: ■ Dame Beatrice Hudson Lyall, D.8.E., . J.P., L.C.C. (chairman), Lady Cowen ■ (British Women's Patriotic League), ; (vice-chairman), Mrs. C. P. Peel, 0.8. E. . (the British Housewives' Association), Mrs. Margaret Maclean, the League of ,' Empire Housewives), Mrs. Mary Gorringe, M.B.E. , TRe committee adopted a statement . of policy, which includes the following:— "The committee's main concern is the sale, under labels or in. wrappers which suggest an English origin, of blended butters which are in many -cases predominantly imported, or predominantly foreign. ' ~ "The. committee believes that it is in- tho public interest that butter shall be so clearly described with its source of origin as to make -it impossible for the consumer to be misled, either by the label itself, the ticket used for marking in the shops,- or the statement of a shopkeeper or his subordinates.. "The types of wrappers which,.in the view of-the consumer, convey tho impression that .blended butters are English include (a) anonymous wrappers which use such wording as 'fresh dairy butter,' 'fresh supplies .daily'; (b) those which bear the name -'and-address of English firms (especially English firms operating in. dairying centres); and (c) those which reproduce English dairying scenes, or bear names' associated with famous dairying centres or counties. DECEPTION THE ISSUE. "The committee .has no objection to the practice of blending butter. It realises that there may be a public that prefers blended to 'straight' but- , ter. It holdsj however, that any kind of deception, intentional or otherwise, is to be deplored. "It is beyond question that the pub--1 lie, • because of a belief in its qualitj^ or its hygienic standard of production, •. has a marked preference for butter i emanating from certain sources, partir cularly home sources. It, therefore, has ' a right to exercise that preference, without fear of deception,"or, alterna--1 tively, to have a choice of any other ' kind of butter of which the origin is ' therefore of opinion that the respons- > "clearly indicated. The committee is' of 1 opinion that responsible Government au-' 1 thorities should without delay take long ' overdue measures to ensure that the " consumer shall know precisely what he ■ is buying. ' \ L "The committeo learns that during 1929 no less than £32,000,000 worth 1 of butter was imported from foreign 1 sources. The committee is satisfied i that, with' one notablo exception, these 1 foreign butters are rarely, if ever, sold > over the counter under labels, or in wrappers, which indicate the country rof origin. If (as has been suggested) | the qualityl of these foreign butters - and the, hygienic standard under which I they are produced are equal to those ) relating to home and Empire butters, i it fails to see why those responsible • for their sale in this country should ! have anything to lose by adopting an ■ unequivocal indication of the source of origin. : "As regards the question of price, i the committee is forced to the conclusion i that the housewife pays about. 3d ' a » 1b more for blended packet butter than she would have to pay as the average i price of the constituent butters if sold I 'straight,' mainly because of her belief i that such packet butters are English. > "The committee is determined to leave no stone unturned until effective measures have been taken to abolish, a system of trading which it considers , intolerable, on both moral and economic grounds, and it invites the co-operation of all classes and organisations of consumers in achieving this end." •Tho statement is signed by the members of the Vigilance Committee. VISCOUNTESS BUBNHAM'S ADVICE. In a letter to the "Daily Telegraph" Lady Burnham writes: — "Sir William Wayland has done a 1 great service in 'drawing attention i through the Royal Empire Society to ■ th£ practice of 'blending' Siberian or other frozen butter with Empire butter, \ and permitting many of the public to [. believe, as the price they pay might ' well lead them to believe, that they are ' buying English butter. : ] "During my visit to Australia in 1925 with ruy husband —who was president of the Imperial Press Conference held at Melbourne in that -year—l had tho fullest opportunity to see at first hand the agreeable conditions under which dairying is carried on in Australia and New Zealand, and I have sinco urged all my friends, during the winter months when home butter is so scarce, to use the fine Australian and New Zealand butter, of which ample supplies, at a most reasonable price, are then forth- ' coming. , "If all housewives wore to adopt this practice they would never risk being led into paying wasteful prices for the strange mixtures to which Sir William Wayland refers." Towards .the end of March Mr. Oswald Lewis, Conservative member for Colchester, Sussex, introduced into tho House of Commons a Blended Butter Bill, which was read a first time. The principal provision bi' the Bjrtl 13 the compulsory use of the word "blended" on the wrapper. ■ ;