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The Food Standards (Ice Cream) (Amendment) Order, 1952, reduced
the minimum fat content of ice cream from 5 per cent to 4 per cent and
milk solids other than fat to 5 per cent. The Food Standards (Ice
Cream)Order, 1951? had required ice cream to contain not less than 5
per cent of fat and 7.5 per cent of milk solids other than fat.Previous
to the last war reputable manufacturers included about 12 per cent of
milk fat in ice cream.
The Food Standards (Suet) Order, 1952, requires Block Suet to
contain not less than 99 per cent by weight of beef suet. It also
requires Shredded Suet to be free from fibrous tissue and to contain not
less than 83 per cent of beef fat, the permitted diluent being farinaceous
material,,
The Oils and Fats Order, 1952, although re-Issued as a fresh order,
introduced no fresh standards for oils and fats. '
lead in Foods. At the end of 1951 the Ministry of Food circulated
a Report and Recommendations designed to limit the amount of lead in
various foods, and comment was invited from interested people. The
proposals put forward were generally those which were expected, bub one of
the chief obstacles in the way of promulgation of final standards at the
present time is the difficulty of finding satisfactory methods for the
exact determination of minute quantities of this element,, The maximum
amounts of lead suggested vary from 0.2 parts per million in ready-to-drmk
beverages other than beer and cider to 20 parts in colourings or 10 parts
in herbs, spices, flavourings and liquid pectin,.
Jam and Marmalade. Revised standards were suggested by the Food
Standards Committee for certain jams, although these are still left as
short term standards and may be revised when conditions improve. The
fruit content for full-fruit standard jams is generally still below the
pre-war full-fruit standards of the Food Manufacturers' Federation, but is
an improvement on the standards adopted in the Food Standards (Preserves)
Order.1944. the case of blackcurrant, loganberry, and raspberry jams?
the quantities of fruit being increased from 22%, 25% and 25% to 30% in
each case. The minimum percentage of fruit in damson jam is, however.
reduced from 38% to 35%
Liqueur Chocolates.During the year the Ministry of Food consulted
the home trade regarding the use of the term "liqueur chocolates" as a
description for chocolate confectionery containing liquid centres, which
contained non-spirituous flavoured syrup. It was arranged that the
words "imitation liqueur chocolates" followed immediately by the word
"non-alcoholic" would be used for the description of this confectionery in
the future and that the word "non-alcoholic" should be in substantially
the same size type as the other descriptive words. The Minister also
drew attention to the fact that the majority of these products are imported
from abroad and that he had been unable to hold discussions with the
manufacturers. Since very few confectioners hold licences for the sale of
alcoholic liquors it is illegal for them to sell real liquer chocolates.