HC Deb 15 June 1911 vol 26 cc1796-8W
Mr. BOWERMAN

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agri- culture if he is aware that quantities of Argentine chilled and frozen meat imported into this country are sold by retail butchers as home-fed meat; if he is also aware that in the Glasgow area, out of about one thousand butchers' shops, at least one-third do not sell 5 per cent. of home-fed meat, while, with the exception of about 100, all sell chilled and frozen foreign meat; and whether the Board have power to insist that such imported meat shall not be described as home-fed meat?

Sir E. STRACHEY

The Board are empowered to institute proceedings in the class of cases referred to in the Merchandise Marks (Prosecutions) Act, 1894, where a false trade description is applied to meat, but in practice offences are almost impossible to prove owing to the difficulty of establishing the actual country of origin to which a description has been applied. The Board are anxious, however, to obtain particulars of specific cases in which there is reason to suspect that the law has been broken, and I shall be glad if the hon. Member would supply me with any information which he may have received on the subject.