View report page

85
Preservatives in Food. Considerable attention was given to this
subject by the Council, who wrote to the Ministry of Health asking
that further consideration should be given to the whole subject of
preservatives in food. The Council felt that a new Committee should
be appointed to take evidence and bring the recommendations up to
date, and that the Ministry should initiate legislation on the lines
suggested by the new Committee. It is desirable that the Ministry
should prescribe the limits of the amount of chemical preservatives
allowed and also regulate the conditions of sale of foodstuffs containing
preservatives. In the course of the year the Analyst found, in samples
taken to him by the Inspectors, that one tin of fish in tomato contained
4.97 grains per pound, of tin; a tin of peas contained .61 grains of
copper, that is 2.4 grains of copper sulphate per pound, and another
contained .48 grains of copper. As these latter two were the first
cases of the kind in the Borough, the Council decided to issue warning
notices in the local press and in a trade journal that, in future, prosecutions
would follow where, on analysis, copper sulphate, tin or other
metals or their salts were found in tinned food. Numerous samples of
beer were analysed but all were free from arsenic within the Royal
Commission limit.
The Council condemned the present practice of some roundsmen
who take stale bread back to the shop in exchange for fresh from some
customers. This stale bread is moistened, put back in the oven and
sold over again. The practice is indefensible, but difficult to stop.
The wrapping of bread in paper coverings for delivery or sale was felt
to be desirable, though enquiry brought out certain existing difficulties.
Acts, Bye-laws, Orders, Regulations, etc. Though the Milk and
Dairies (Amendment) Act, 1922 came into operation on 1st September,
1922, a word as to its importance is opportune. As one who has been
long enough in the public health service to learn how surely and steadily,
though perhaps slowly, needed reforms crystallize in public health
matters, I rejoice to see how already the public is demanding a pure
milk supply. Those who believe in the British public as I do, and who
spend many a long hour in writing up this and the other subjects to
help on a pure food supply, are heartened at the questions and the
demand for the best which are now vocal. It is true that only two
dealers applied in Deptford for licences to sell Certified Milk, still
a start has been made. In London much of the public milk supply