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FOOD AND DRUGS
During the year 502 informal and 379 formal samples
of foods and drugs were submitted to the Public Analyst;
6 informal and 5 formal samples received adverse reports,
The samples reported against covered a wide range including
non-brewed condiment deficient in acetic acid; dirty milk
bottles, and raspberries in syrup containing colouring
matter which was not revealed by the label, but it was
considered sufficient to caution the firms concerned in
all except one case. In this case a sample of blackcurrants
in syrup was found to contain 7.5 parts of lead per million
whereas in the opinion of the Public Analyst canned fruit
should not contain more than 2 parts per million. Legal
proceedings were authorised but since warranties could be
produced throughout the chain of sale back to the exporters
in Australia and the distributors had called in all available
stocks in this country the case was withdrawn. A number
of samples of instant coffee were found to be incorrectly
labelled but in each case the manufacturers amended the
description to meet the Council s requirements.
Particular attention continues to be paid to the
possibility of metallic contamination of canned and other
foods and to the presence of artificial colours, especially
in the highly-coloured varieties of confectionery which
are on sale in some shops. In general, manufacturers seem
to be using only those colours permitted by the Regulations
and very few cases arose in which non-permitted colours
were found. When this occurred it was almost invariably
in products manufactured before the Regulations were in
force.
Much work was done on the composition of various types
of canned meats. British manufacturers have agreed that
products described as Luncheon Meat shall contain at
least 80% of meat and most foreign producers have fallen
into line but there are numerous other canned meat preparations
for which no standards exist and while many of these
are of reasonable composition the quality of some leaves
much to be desired. It may be hoped that, as the result
of negotiations now in progress, some measure of agreement
as to the composition of these and certain other products
may be reached.
New legislation during the year has included the Food
Hygiene (General) and the Food Hygiene (Docks, Carriers,
etc.) Regulations which consolidate and amend previous