British Food Journal Volume 68 Issue 3 1966 Available to Purchase

A new Protection of Consumers (Trade Descriptions) law to replace existing legislation was before the House of Lords—it had a second reading and passed to the Committee stage but has now lapsed because of the Election —as the outcome of the Molony Committee on Consumer Protection which made its final report about three years ago. Merchandise Marks law has proved extremely valuable protection for the consumer in a wide field of misdescription and in the narrower sphere of food control a useful measure for supplementing Sect. 6, Food and Drugs Act, 1955, especially where the latter seems less suitable in application. The broad purpose of the Merchandise Marks Acts is to deal with misdescription of goods—false trade description—and as far as food is concerned, this is not always a matter of quality. On rare occasions it has been seen to work in reverse. In the curious case of Essex County Council v. Tuckwell (Butchers) Ltd., 1964, where the defendant had inadvertently supplied English instead of the New Zealand lamb ordered, generally accepted as being meat of better quality, the L.C.J. held that there was no defence against the charge of having sold meat with a false trade description.