View report page

66
provision should be made for "dairy ice cream" of which the fat should be
entirely milk fat, and "milk ice" made on the basis of the old fashioned
hokey-pokey, which is essentially a custard-type ice with a milk fat content
of not less than 2.5 per cent.
The Food Standards Committee also issued a revised report on Fluorine,
The previous report was issued in 1947 following the discovery of very
large quantities of fluorine in phosphates used in baking powders resulting
from the emergency conditions caused by the war. These circumstances have
how disappeared and it is proposed to restrict drastically the quantities
of fluorine permitted in acidic phosphates used for foods, in baking powders,
and in flour products containing such phosphates.
There is, however, a considerable delay between the issue of Reports
by the Food Standards Committee and ensuing legislation,. Thus the following
Reports have appeared:-
Report on Antioxidants. The revised report appeared in 1954, but no
legislation has followed so far. Now that the Colouring Matter in Food
Order has removed colours from the orbit of the Public Health (Preservatives,
etc. in Food) Regulations, the time is ripe for a fresh order.
Second Report on Processed Cheese and Cheese Spread. This revised
report appeared in 1956. Legislation is also required to control the
descriptions of skimmed, partially skimmed, and so-called cream cheeses.
Report on Emulsifying and Stabilising Agents. This report appeared in
1956.
Reports have been issued on Arsenic (Revised Report, 1955), Copper (1956),
Lead (Revised Report, 1954), Tin (1952), and Zinc (1954), but no further
action has ensued although it is believed that an Order controlling the
quantity of arsenic in food may not be long delayed.
Looking to the future, Public Analysts are deeply concerned by
the need to safeguard the public against the effects of radioactivity. The
recent incident at Windscale brought the matter into prominence, but even
before that a good deal of preliminary work had been done by Public Analysts.
The task of monitoring pastures, crops, etc., in the vicinity of atomic
installations is vested in the Ministry of Agriculture by the Atomic Energy
Act, but the ultimate responsibility for the protection of the public must
rest on the Public Analyst. Many foods are imported from abroad, from regions
which may be affected by the "fall-out" from test explosions, or canned
fish may come from seas into which radioactive effluents flow. Fish may
concentrate radioactive elements up to two million times the amount in the sea
water in which they live.
As the complexity of the work has increased so has the equipment of
the analyst's laboratory. The crude adulteration of the earlier years
demanded only the simplest equipment, but the tasks of today require the
use of complex physical instruments such as absorptioaseters, flame
photometers, polarographs, etc. Without these instruments the
determination of many essential factors, such as vitamins, would be impossible.