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this would not account for the vomiting caused to the two people who
consumed portions. The police were satisfied that there could have
been no sinister attempt on the consumers, so handed the matter back
to the Council. The manufacturers of the cake were equally convinced
that the amytal could not have gained access in their bakery, nor would
sodium amytal alone have caused the vomiting. The vomiting was probably
caused by the fact that sodium amytal is often prescribed in admixture with
ipecacuanha alkaloids, these alkaloids being added to cause vomiting if
taken in excess and therefore to help stop drug addiction. There is,
therefore, the possibility that someone in the bakery might have been trying
to take a large dose of tablets, and finding them most unpleasant, had spat
them out between the cake base and the filling or someone might have been
playing a practical joke on the consumers. This cannot be known. The
origin of the various pieces of animal hair and dirt was found to have arisen
from the consumers of the cake having been at work in a furriers at the time
of the event. They found the cake so revolting that they threw the uneaten
portions on the floor before gathering them again to submit to the Council's
Inspectors, but it did not occur to them that this aspect of "the case might
complicate matters and should have been mentioned.
Food Legislation.
The year little change in food legislation, although proposals
were made for such changes.
The Lead in Pood Regulations, brought into force the proposals
made by the Food Standards Committee in 1959. The maximum quantity of lead
permitted in a ready-to-drink non-alcoholic beverage is 0.2 parts per million
and for other foods 2.0 parts per million with the exception of certain foods.
These are divided into two classes, those for which a larger amount of lead will
be permitted for a limited time only and those which contain larger quantities
of lead naturally and can never be kept to the low limit proposed for ordinary
foods. Such foods include apples, pears, concentrated fruit juices and tomato
puree or paste, fish and canned fish, raw sugars, including liquid or solid
glucose, cocoa powder, tea, yeast and yeast products, dried onions, herbs,
ground spices, flavourings, and pectin. The quantity permitted in these foods
is based on the amounts likely to be present from natural causes.
The Labelling of Food (Amendment) Regulations, 1961, exempts wines
prepared from preserved or concentrated grape juice from declaring the fruit
juice from which they have been prepared, even though they have not been
obtained from the fermentation of the freshly expressed juice. The
Ministers of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food? Healths and Scotland, and
the Home Secretary have asked the Food Standards Committee to undertake a
review of the existing labelling of food provisions of the Labelling of Food
Order and other food regulations relating to labelling and the Food Standards
Committee have asked for the views of any interested parties.
The Food Standards Committee issued a supplementary Report on
Preservatives in Food together with Proposals for new Regulations. The
problem of preservatives, food additives, and similar substances is becoming
so complex that one cannot but- sympathise with any committee advising a
Government at the present time. In the opinion of your analyst, moreover,
the time has now arrived when no country of importance can afford to make
laws governing such additions without considering carefully the existing and