Records of the Middlesex County Council Public Control Department, 1904-1965, including personal papers of Chief Officer John O'Keefe (1950-1960) including files on the foods and food standards commission, food labelling, weights and measures regulations, Consumer's Advisory Council, samples sent to the public analyst, articles on food and drugs legislation, correspondence, photographs of the work of the department and examples of labels and forms used by the department.

Papers relating to food standards including files on coffee, gelatine, fish paste, ice cream, margarine, mustard, salad cream and mayonnaise, jams and jellies, beverages, wines, spirits and liquors, bread, milk, butter, cream, yoghurt, confectionary, vegetables, meat, eggs, soups, herbs and spices, cakes, pies and biscuits, slimming foods, vinegars and condiments, cheese, cereals, crisps, honey, soya products, vitamins. Also files on drugs, cosmetics, pollen tablets, and animal fats.

Papers relating to merchandise marks including legislation; notes regarding legal points; and files regarding honey, fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry, butter, turpentine, bleach and fabrics. Papers relating to the interpretation and labelling of poisons.

Papers relating to weights and measures including regulations; notes for the guidance of inspectors; correspondence and enquiries relating to sand and ballast; files regarding coke, coal, liquid fuels and lubricating oils; files regarding weighing equipment and measuring instruments including weighbridges.

Also registers and index cards of infringements; reports of infringements and legal appeals.

Records of R White and Sons Limited, soft drinks manufacturers, including a ledger covering profits and sales figures for R White & Sons from 1845 through to 1951 along with obituaries, details on property and wages, and a corporate and financial history of the Company. Also included are examples of bottle labelling and newspaper cuttings of Company adverts.

Records of J Lyons and Company Limited and Lyons Tetley Limited, food manufacturers and caterers, W H and F J Horniman and Company Limited and Joseph Tetley and Company, tea merchants, 1849-1978.

This collection contains records relating to all three companies (Horniman, Lyons and Tetley) when they were trading as separate businesses and when they were united under various incarnations of the one "Lyons" name. (They include references to other companies such as Symbol biscuits which Lyons took over in 1944)

However, despite the fact that some corporate records such as minutes have been retained by the Tetley Group Limited the majority of this collection is in fact composed of records relating to the Lyons company (which is necessarily linked with the former due to the fact it was a major competitor for years before taking it over in 1973).

Marketing and publicity aspects are the most heavily represented. As such this is a visually appealing collection and of particular note are the photograph albums and volumes of artwork, product labels and advertisments which are a testiment to the impact tea drinking has had on British society and its way of life.

Records of Whiffen and Son Ltd, manufacturing chemists, 1752-1972, including history of the company; articles of partnership and other contracts and agreements; legal documents relating to property; correspondence; circulars; financial accounts; papers relating to shares and shareholders; stock records; newspaper cuttings; photographs; staff wages books and pensions papers; records relating to staff associations and sports clubs including minute books; reports on chemical manufacture, laboratory notebooks and chemical analyses; papers relating to sales; papers relating to imports and foreign suppliers; advertisements; registers of product labels; samples of packaging; rules, regulations and legislation regarding factories and safety measures; papers regarding the Second World War including war damage to factories and papers relating to staff on active duty.

Also records of Saint Amand Manufacturing Company Limited including ledgers, letter books and journals.

Records of Whitbread and Company Limited, brewers, relating to advertising, memorabilia and personal records, including substantial albums and guard books with Whitbread and Company advertising and labelling from 1935 through to 1980, newscuttings book of adverts commissioned (1921-1996), photographs of premises (1930-1979) and correspondence relating to advertising campaigns. Also included are published histories of the Company from both the nineteenth and twentieth century. This collection also includes the Whitbread Archivist's research files on public houses in the London area, subsidary companies and individuals associated with Whitbread and Company.