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among chemists to mean a re-arrangement of fatty acid groups within
a fat, which is quite a different thing.
The Pre-Packed Food (Weights and Measures: Marking) (Amendment)
Regulations, 1962, the Pood and Drugs (Legal Proceedings) Regulations,
1962, and the Milk and Dairies (Legal Proceedings) Regulations, 1962,
enable Local Authorities, when taking proceedings for infringements
of certain orders, to take action against persons other than the vendor,
if they are thought to be responsible, thus making action under all
food and drugs regulations similar to other infringements of the Act.
It will be noted that the Minister has introduced the custom of
bringing in statutory regulations for foods generally, and for milk
separately. This is at times unfortunate as it implies, for example,
that substances declared not to be preservatives, emulsifiers, or
stabilisers within the meaning of the regulations may be added to milk.
It remains to be seen how the courts will interpret these Regulations,
if called upon to do so.
Certain manufacturers have always resented the idea of Food Standards
Orders on the grounds that they restrict initiative and the Ministry has
shown a tendency to reduce the number of such orders to a minimum, so
long as the public are adequately protected. With this end in view the
Food Standards (Table Jellies) (Amendment and Revocation) Regulations,
1962, revoke the existing standards for table jellies and table jelly
crystals, but require manufacturers to label them in accordance with the
provisions of the Labelling of Food Order.
During the year the Food Standards Committee of the Ministry
issued four Reports dealing with:-
(1) Canned Meat.
(2) Hard, Soft and Cream Cheeses.
(3) Dried Milk, and
(4) Mineral Oil in Food.
The Report on Canned Meat endeavours to make all canned meat
products fall into one of ten different categories for meat content and
thus to prevent manufacturers lowering the recognised meat content of a
product by giving it a slightly different name. The proposed groups
are:-
Canned meat 95 per cent, Canned minced meat 90 per cent, Canned
meat with jelly 80 per cent, Canned meat with gravy 75 per cent, Canned
meat with sauce 65 per cent, Canned meat with cereal 80 per cent, Meat
loaf 6$ per cent, Meat loaf with stuffing 50 per cent, Canned meat with
vegetables 35 per cent, Canned meat with pastry 45 per cent, Canned meat
puddings 35 per cent, Canned meat pies 25 per cent, Canned sausage $0 per
cent, Canned pork sausage 65 per cent. Any other canned meat product
35 per cent. In general this is a very satisfactory grouping, though it
would be difficult to bring products such as canned raviolis containing
meat into the category of canned meat with pastry. Similarly one already
finds certain manufacturers flavouring stews with onion and claiming,
therefore, that the product falls within the definition of canned meat with
vegetables, which is not the intention of the report. Probably the most