Analytical Sanitary Commission

Another cause of concern in the nineteenth century was food adulteration, especially the addition of colouring materials. In 1851 The Lancet set up the Analytical Sanitary Commission, whose main members were Arthur Hassall and Henry Letheby. The reports of the Commission showed that food was indeed being contaminated by poisonous additives. These findings led to the first Food and Drugs Act of 1860, and from the 1870s Local Authorities started to appoint public analysts.349... 

Hassall, A. H., Lancet, (Reports of the Analytical Sanitary Commission) 1851-1854 Food and its Adulteration, London, 1855 Adulterations Detected, London, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1857. 

Between 1850 and 1855 the Analytical Sanitary Commission - set up by Thomas Wakley, editor of the Lancet - instituted a searching investigation... 

---