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Preservatives in Foodstuffs.
The Committee referred to me a very important communication
on Food Preservatives by the Medical Officer of Health to
the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington. The report is an
extremely useful one, and among other things points out the
very widespread use of preservatives in foodstuffs. In addition
to dairy produce, he says that boric acid is found in sausages,
potted meats, bacon and brawn; salicylic acid in jams and temperance
drinks, sulphites in temperance drinks, and occasionally
formalin in the same drinks. He adds also the following paragraph:-
"The proportions of added preservatives were found to
range widely. In the case of sausages, potted meats and
brawn, the amount of boron preservative (calculated as boric
acid) ranged from 15 to 66 grains per lb., and in bacon from
8.6 to 46. Salicylic acid was found in jams in amounts varying
from 1.7 to 8.5 grains per lb., in temperance drinks from
1.5 to 19 grains per pint. Sulphites in lime juice, ginger
wine, etc., ranged from 0.1 to 4.5 grains (SO2) per pint. The
proportions of formalin found could not be stated with any
accuracy."
When the question of boric acid in cream was raised by the
Borough of Kensington last autumn, I reported to the Committee
the very unsatisfactory state of the question of preservatives
generally in food, and I recommended at that time that a Committee
be re-appointed to investigate the question, and bring the
report of the Departmental Committee of Food Preservatives,
issued in 1901, up to date, and that the Ministry of Health be
asked to initiate legislation on the lines recommended by the
Committee. In the present report the whole question has been
raised afresh by Dr. Dudfield, and there is no question that it
is time that the use of chemical preservatives, if necessary at
all, should be under strict regulation. In cold storage and in
suitable cool storage we have ample means of preserving food not
only in transit but in all stages until it reaches the consumers'
hands, and it seems to me that we might follow the example