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(82)
The Food Standards (Margarine) Order, 1954, made it compulsory to add
vitamin A and vitamin D to margarine and prescribed the method for the
determination of vitamin A.
The Food Standards (Soft Drinks) (Amendment) Order, 1954, permitted
soft drinks to be made from fruit juice with or without added sugar and
in concentrated or frozen form,
During the year all ordinary control Orders relating to the rationing
of manufacture or consumption of foods have been revoked leaving
their manufacture and sale more flexible. These revocations, unless
controls are introduced under the new Food and Drugs Consolidation Act,
may entail greater care before manufacturers are prosecuted or warned.
A Report was issued by the Food Standards Committee on Antioxidants
in foods and recommended that propyl, octyl, or dodecyl gallates or
mixtures of these should be permitted up to 0.0l per cent in edible oils
and fats and 0.1 per cent in essential (that is volatile flavouring)
oils. Alternatively butylated hydroxyanisole should be permitted in
quantities up to 0.02 and 0.1 per cent respectively.
A fresh Report on lead was issued by the Food Standards Committee
proposing that a general limit of 0.2 parts per million should be imposed
on ready-to-drink beverages and 2.0 parts per million in other foods.
Various exceptions to these general limits are suggested and in certain
cases, such as food colours and solid pectin, the quantities rise to 20
and 50 parts per million respectively.
The Food Standards Committee issued a Report suggesting that readyto-drink
beverages should not contain more than 5 parts per million of
zinc and that other foods should not contain more than 50 parts per
million, but that these limits should be exercised with discretion if
it could be proved that the presence of the zinc is a natural occurrence.
Although the Minister of Food has stated more than once in
Parliament that he does not wish to fix a standard for the meat content
of sausages, the Ministry issued a Circular showing the average meat
content 6f pork sausages is greater than 65 per cent and of beef sausages
greater than 50 per cent.
The Ministry issued a Circular drawing the attention of Local
Authorities to the use by certain exporters in other countries of thiourea
as a fungicide to prevent deterioration in citrus fruits and that this
was a contravention of the Public Health (Preservatives etc. in Food)
Regulations.
The Ministry issued a Circular which stated that cream soups should
contain either not less than per cent of butter fat, or not less than
per cent of butter fat and not less than 3 per cent of total edible
fat, or not less than 3½ per cent of edible fat.