View report page

59
The following items of legislation or proposed legislation were
introduced during the year:-
The most important of these was the Food and Drugs Bill, which had its
first reading in the House of Lords in November• This Bill is primarily a
consolidating bill and will enable a large volume of Emergency legislation
to be made permanent. It will also tidy up some of the law under the
existing Food and Drugs Acts, 1938 - 1950. Unless an Act of this nature
were passed it would be difficult to retain a considerable number of
Statutory Orders introduced by the Minister of Food during and since the war.
Unlike much of the temporary legislation of the last few years a considerable
amount of thought is being given to this Bill and all interested parties
should find an opportunity to have their views expressed in me or other of
the Houses of Parliament.
The Labelling of Food Order, 1953, was largely a re-enactment of the
previous Labelling of Food Order, but it released what are commmly known as
biscuits from the necessity of declaring their ingredients. It permits the
labels of intoxicating liquors to be printed either with a light block print
an a dark background or the reverse, it permits the additicn of emulsifying
salts and edible starch merely to be defined as such when added to stated
foods, and it allows preparations specified in the British Pharmacopoeia or
the British Pharmaceutical Codex to be sold without a declaration of composition.
Qq the other hand it requires french coffee and Vienna coffee to be
labelled "coffee and chicory mixture" or "coffee with fig seasoning" in
substantially as conspicuous wording as "french coffee™ or 'Viennese coffee".
It also prohibits the sale of solutions containing more than 15% of acetic
acid by anyone other than a pharmacist or an authorised seller of poisons
unless the labels are marked "Dangerous - not to be used udess diluted"
together with the relevant wording showing the concentration, of acetic acid
present.
The Cream and Use of Milk (Revocation) Order, 1953» enabled home produced
cheese and cream to come on to the market again by removing restrictions ess.
manufacture and sale. It also permits the use of milk to the manufacture of
bread, biscuits, pastries, cakes, ice-cream and confectionery geaerally.
The Food Standards (Ice Cream) Order, 1953$ re-enacted the Food Standards
(Ice Cream) Order, 1951, and re-introduced the minimum fat cosateofe ©f
sugar 1Q£, and milk-s olidsHiot-fat 7.5$. Seventy five per cent of the sugar
must be sucrose, i.e., cane or beet sugar, and the other 25% may be invest
sugar or sugars derived from the hydrolysis of starch.
The Milk (Great Britain) Order, 1953* replaced with amendmenta the Milk
(Control and Maximum Prices) Order, 1951> and from the public? analysts' point
of view the essential factor in this Order is the permission to sell Channel
Islands and South Devon milk containing less than 4- per cent of fat under
their own names, so long as the prices charged are only those permitted for
other milks in the same categories, i.e., as ordinary milk, Tuberculin Tested
milk, or Tuberculin Tested Farm Battled Milk.
The Public Health (Condensed Milk) (Amendment) Regulations, 1953s
re-enacted the provisions of Regulation 60 CAA of the Defence (General)
Regulations and permits the sale of full cream unsweetened condensed milk
imported by the Minister containing not less than 7.S$ of fat and net less
than 25.5% of all milk solids including fat.