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61
although it is believed that an Order controlling the quantity of arsenic in food may
not be long delayed now.
The Pood Standards (Soft Drinks) Order was last revised in 1953 and it was
immediately pointed out that the definition of drinks made from "Whole fresh oranges"
was ambiguous and needed clarification, but no revised order has yet appeared.
When delays of two years or more occur after the issue of Reports of the Food
Standards Committee without any administrative action being taken by the Government, it
places food administration by Local Authorities in a difficult position and manufacturers
are left in a quandary. Reputable manufacturers hesitate to act merely on
the recommendations of the Pood Standards Committee, whilst others are prepared to take
a risk. Public analysts on the other hand are loath to condemn products, which comply
with the proposals of a Standing Government Committee, because of the risk of caustic
comments from the Courts. In spite of the continual pressure of Local Authorities and
Public analysts no order has yet been made to control the meat content of sausages,
though one would have expected more regard to have been paid to the comments of the
Lord Chief Justice on this point Other products, such as stewed steak, stewed steak
in gravy and luncheon meat show a continued deterioration in the quantity of the meat
present, but the Courts are unwilling to lay down standards when the Government seems
unable to do so. There is much so-called chocolate on the market at the present time
containing large quantities of hardened palm kernel oil instead of cocoa butter and
milk chocolate containing separated milk powder.
The year 1960 will mark the centenary of the passing of the first food and drugs
act and the inaction of the Government at the present time reminds one strongly of the
inertia shown by Governments of that time and the efforts made by Dr. Wakeley, in
setting up the Lancet Commission, and others in order to force their hands. It is
difficult to know to what extent the present position has arisen from the frequent
changes taking place at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, where food
administration appears, at the present time, to be a training ground for higher office
either in the political field or in the administrative service.
Looking to the future, Public Analysts are deeply concerned by the need to safe
guard the public against the effects of radioactivityo 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 "fall-out" from test explosions, or canned fish may
come from seas into which radioactive effluents flow Pish 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 absorptiometers flamephotometers, polarographs, etc Without these instruments
the determination of many essential factors, such as vitamins, would be impossible.
As an example, your analyst has recently purchased a spectrophotometer which, with the
ancillary equipment cost over £800, Not many years ago a large laboratory could have
been equipped for such a sum The use of such equipment moreover requires highly
skilled staff, who are difficult to obtain when the demand for scientists exceeds the
supply and more lucrative fields are open to them How the situation can best be
handled is difficult to foresee. but it is one to which considerable thought must be
given in the near future,
Thomas McLachlan
Public Analyst,