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Cream Cheese
During the year investigations were undertaken regarding
the composition of cream cheese. Eleven samples were
submitted to the Public Analyst and, in his opinion, three
were of genuine cream cheese, three were of soft cheese with
added cream, and five were soft cheese made from milk but not
from cream.
There is no legal standard for cream cheese although it
was a recognized practice before the last war that this product
should be made from sour cream. The dictionary defines cream
cheese as cheese of a soft rich kind, made from skimmed milk
and cream. Before the war the National Mark Scheme, under
the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Acts, required
a fat content of not less than 60 per cent, in cream cheese.
The average fat content of forty-nine samples of cream cheese,
taken in the years 1933-1939, was found by the Government
Chemist to be 71.6 per cent.
Taking the result of one of the samples considered to be
soft cheese made from milk but not from cream, the comparative
food values are as follows:-

It will, therefore, be seen that cream cheese, as at present
being sold is a soft watery cheese containing only one-fifth
of the proper amount of fat, and the prices charged varied from
2s.6d. to 10s. 6d. per lb.
Careful consideration was given to this matter to see
whether proceedings could be taken under either the Pood and
Drugs Act, 1938, or the Defence (Sale of Pood) Regulations, 1943.
Having regard to the impending operation of the new Pood and
Drugs Amendment Act, 1954, which will require the word "Cream"
to mean real cream when used in combined descriptions, it is
felt that the present practice will cease.
In the absence of a legal standard for this article of
food and in the light of present-day practices and opinion
based on a standard which obtained in pre-war years, the view
was held that proceedings could not be taken with any reasonable
hope of success.
Having regard to all the circumstances, it was ultimately
decided that particulars be forwarded to the Ministry of food.
Meringues
With reference to this confection, the traditional
ingredients are white of egg and sugar. Due to war-time
and immediate post-war restrictions and shortages of eggs,
synthetic materials have been used for the manufacture of
meringues, in the nature of cellulose ether and methyl cellulose,
During the year fourteen samples were submitted for analysis
Wine of these were reported as genuine and to contain white of
egg or albumen. The remaining five, however, were reported as
imitation meringues containing no white of egg or albumen.