View report page

59
The label of a liquid ice lolly required amendment: 'sodium alginate' was described as
'alginate' and 'saccharin was speit with a terminal e
Five samples of soup mix were both incorrectly labelled and the ingredients were declared
in the wrong order.
Samples sold as prepared lemons, prepared oranges, and prepared apricots, were considered
to be incorrectly labelled as this description indicated that the apricots, lemons, and oranges were
whole whereas they were cut into small pieces for jam or marmalade manufacture. They should
have been described as 'Prepared Apricot', 'Prepared Lemon', and 'Prepared Orange', theabsence
of the plural description would imply better what was in the can.
Some lemon drops contained 0.68 per cent of acid as citric acid, 13.2 mg of Vitamin C per oz,
colouring, flavouring and sugar. They were prepacked and as confectionery exempt from the
requirements of bearing the name and address of the manufacturer, but they were not exempt from
part 6 of the Labelling of Food Order which requires any food making a claim for the presence of
Vitamins to state the quantity of vitamins present.
A sample of 'Slimmers Sugar' consisted of sugar with 1 per cent of sodium saccharin and was
recommended for making puddings and cakes This was considered by your analyst to be a misleading
label as with puddings and cakes one eats to repletion or comfort One does not eat
to calories unless one is on a regulated diet, and this label disclaimed any pretence to be a
diabetic sweetener. By analogy with the Bread and Flour Regulations, 1963, mentioned later,
this product should only be recommended for slimming, when the label mentions that it should
only be used to form part of a diet of which the calorie intake is controlled.
One sample of Vodka was labelled as 65.50° Proof but was found to be only 64.10° Proof
spirit so that it was 2.1 per cent deficient in proof spirit, and another was labelled as 80° Proof
contained only 78.9 per cent of proof spirit and was therefore 1.4 per cent deficient in alcohol.
LEGISLATION ISSUED OR PROPOSED DURING 1963.
The year has been a comparatively quiet one regarding the issue of food regulations, but the
following are of interest:-
THE bread AND FLOUR REGULATIONS, 1963. These Regulations largely reinforce the provisions
of the Flour (Composition) Order, 1956, with improvements but with restrictions on the
sale of bread for dietetic purposes. It is now permissible to add iron to flour either as reduced
iron or as iron and ammonium citrate, a provision which has been found necessary because the
reduced iron has also been removed and has caused trouble with the magnets, when flour is passed
under a magnet for manufacturing purposes in order to removenails and other pieces of iron, which
may have got into flour. It is no longer necessary to add chalk to self-raising flours prepared
with a calcium containing baking powder. Milk bread and skimmed milk bread must contain not
less than 6 per cent of milk powder or skimmed milk powder, as the case may be, calculated on the
dry weight of the bread Protein enriched bread must contain not less than 20 per cent of protein,
calculated on the dry weight, and starch-reduced bread, biscuits, rusks, and breakfast foods must
not contain more than 50 per cent of starch similarly calculated No claims are permitted for
slimming properties unless these are accompanied by a statement to the effect that the food
forms part of a diet of which the calories intake is controlled.
THE LIQUID EGG (PASTEURISATION) REGULATIONS, 1963, have been issued as a result of
the number of food poisoning cases, which have been traced to the use of raw liquid or frozen egg.
The test relies on the fact that an enzyme, amylase, present in fresh egg is destroyed by pasteurisation