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lacquer which was too thin, or the tin-plate may have been oily when
the lacquer was applied. It was doubtful whether this had caused the
digestive trouble.
The lacquer of some cans of rhubarb had separated in large patches
and considerable corrosion had occurred. The rhubarb in one of the cans
contained 356 parts per million of tin and 9.8 parts per million of iron
and the contents of another can contained 190 parts per million of tin.
The purchaser of some chile powder complained that it was not of
the usual quality and was a dark colour. This was submitted together
with an unopened tin and the two samples were found to be similar. They
were not what would be called chile powder in this country, but consisted
of a mixture of ground spices compounded on the lines of curry powder.
The powder was safe to use, but was misdescribed and, moreover, it did
not comply with the requirements of our Labelling of Food Order, inasmuch
as the first Schedule, Table A item 3(a) only exempts spices from the
description of their ingredients when they consist of a single ingredient.
Food Legislation
During the year the most important item of food legislation was
the introduction of the Preservatives in Food Regulations, 1962, together
with its subsidiary The Milk and Dairies (Preservatives) Regulations. The
Preservatives Regulations follow the lines foreshadowed in the Report of
which a precis was given last year so that there is little object in
repeating the information. The number of preservatives permitted in
foods has been increased to twelve, but in no case are more than three
defined preservatives permitted to be used for any specified food. A
recommendation by the Food Standards Committee that nisin should be permitted
as a preservative for cheese has not been adopted in spite of a common
belief that it may now be used. The chief item of interest, which had not
been foreseen, was that no provision has been made for an expiry date for
the sale of pickles and sauces containing benzoic acid as a preservative, so
that, theoretically, the sale of thousands of bottles and jars of such
products became illegal overnight and have remained so.
The Emulsifiers and Stabilisers in Food Regulations, 1962, together
with the Milk and Dairies (Emulsifiers and Stabilisers) Regulations, 1962,
follow very nearly the lines suggested in the Report of the Food Standards
Committee in 1961. The main difference is that definitions have been
introduced in these regulations, which will fail to satisfy everyone. Thus
an emulsifier is described as a substance which is capable of aiding the
formation of a uniform dispersion of two or more immiscible substances and,
in the opinion of your analyst, this is a natural definition which is long
overdue, but many authorities believe that an emulsion must be a suspension
of one liquid in another. Similarly mixtures have been on the market for
many years now called by the simple name glyceryl monostearate. Henceforth
these fixtures of indefinite composition become partial glycerol esters,
which in fact they are, although they often contain free stearic acid. On
the other hand, the term interesterification, not mentioned in the Draft
Regulations, has now been employed to mean the polymerisation which takes
place when castor oil is heated, whereas the word is known internationally