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57
The ingredients on several samples of fruit salad and fruit cocktail were not listed in accordance
with the quanitites of fruit found to be present.
A can of ' Sliced Peaches in Heavy Syrup contained only 54 per cent by weight of drained
peaches and the syrup contained 16.6 per cent of soluble solids. They should not have been labelled
as being in heavy syrup, but as being in syrup A follow up sample was lightly better with 54.8 per
cent of drained weight of peaches, and 20.7 per cent of soluble solids in the syrup.
Some canned apple juice was stated on the label to contain not less than 35 mgs. of vitamin
C per 100 c.c.but only 21 mgs. was found. The sample was reported as inferior, but the label would
have been better if amended to read "contains 35 mgs of vitamin C. per 100 c.c. when packed".-
A product sold as "Pure Grape Juice" contained added colour Amaranth Fast Red E and Green
S, although there was no disclosure of the presence of artificial colour.
The label of a composite product sold as "Chicken Dinner" had the ingredients declared in
the wrong order. Peas were listed before carrots, although the product contained 66 parts by weight
of peas and only 34 of carrots.
Three samples of soya sauce were incorrectly labelled. One did not declare its ingredients
at all, and the other two declared among other things "extract of soya bean", which is unsatisfactory
because extracts can be obtained as alcoholic or aqueous extracts, or, as was probably
the case with this product it was really hydrolysed soya protein. One of these latter samples also
listed the ingredients in incorrect order and the product also contained a large number of crystals
of salt.
A sauce for spaghetti contained 10.5 p.p.m. of copper, but as it contained a mixture of
ingredients it was impossible to determine the amount of tomato solids present and it was therefore
difficult to know what would be the quantity of copper permitted. When the product had been opened
for some time it fermented slowly, and it was suggested that the presence of rather more salt
would prevent this fermentation.
Several samples of hot pepper pickle were examined and contained varying quantities of
salt and acetic acid, indicating that more care was required in their manufacture.
A tomato sauce was incorrectly labelled as it was stated to contain "solution of acetic
acid", but this is not a recognised description since this is itself a mixture of ingredients. The
correct description would be 'acetic acid' in its proper order of priority.
Legislation issued or proposed during 1964
The year 1963 was a comparatively quite one as regards food legislation, but the year 1964
was busy, not because of the number of Statutory Instruments issued, but on account of fresh
legislation, which is being initiated.
The following items are of interest:-
Food Additives and Contaminants Committee,
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food decided to make the above Committee a
committee in its own right on account of the importance that this aspect of food has assumed.
He asked the Committee among other things, to examine the leeching out of poisonous substances
into foods from any wrapping materials that might be employed. Urgent attention, however, is