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(b) In the case of boracised cream, the maximum amount
of boron preservative, calculated as boric acid (H3B03), should be
0.4 per cent. from May to October inclusive, and 0.25 per cent.
during the remainder of the year.
(c) Cream in which boron preservatives are permitted subject
to the above limits should in all cases contain at least 40 per
cent. of milk fat.
(4) Having regard to the use of sweetening agents, such as saccharine,
to conceal sourness of cream and to impart an unnatural sweetness,
it appears desirable that their presence should be notified to the
purchaser.
Although the introduction of chemical preservatives into any article of food
(other than salt and saltpetre in the case of meat) is to be deprecated as a
general principle, I consider the suggested regulations will, in the main, meet
the difficulty. The proposal contained in Article (1), "that the presence of
preservatives in cream should in all cases be declared," should, however, be
modified so as to agree with the recommendations of the Departmental
Committee, which, as will be seen above, advised that the amount of
preservative should be notified on a label upon the vessel.
Many firms at the present time declare the presence of preservative in
cream by means of a label on the vessel containing it, but in most of these
cases the notice is printed in microscopically-sized characters, and is therefore
likely to be overlooked by the purchaser.
If the declaration of the addition of a preservative is made obligatory, it is
essential that it should be adequate. Dr. Hamill suggests that the labels
used should be in a prescribed form to be affixed to every receptacle in which
the cream treated with preservative is sold. If this method is adopted the
declaration will be a real one, and not as now obtains, an attempt to evade
the provisions of the Food and Drugs Acts.
It would serve a useful purpose for the Local Government Board to adopt
another recommendation contained in the Report of the Departmental
Committee, viz.:—
"That the artificial thickening of cream by any addition of gelatine
"or other substance, shall raise a presumption that the cream is not
"genuine."
It should be remembered that hitherto the Board of Agriculture and
Fisheries were the only statutory authority empowered to make regulations
with regard to preservatives or colouring matter in cream. This authority
may, if they think fit, adopt Dr. Hamill's recommendations and thereby give
them a legal value, but no regulations that may be made by the Local
Government Board under the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) Act,
1907, can be read into any of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts now in force.