London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kensington 1959

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]

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- 59 -
Date Marking of Pies
On 10th February, 1959, the Council decided to ask the
Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint Committee to make representations to
require manufacturers to mark pies with the date of manufacture, or the
date of issue, in a prescribed uncoded manner. The Standing Joint Committee
agreed with this proposal and made representations to the Minister of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
The Ministry replied that the suggestion could be applied only to
wrapped pies, and the effect of a statutory requirement might be to
discourage the use of wrappers. The Ministry consider that the date-marking
of wrapping would not be a useful indication of the condition of the pie when
it was sold, because so much depended upon the storage and other conditions
on the sellers' premises, and the quality and the freshness of the product
when it was processed.
The Ministry were of the opinion that the provisions of the Food
and Drugs Act, 1955, which make it an offence to sell unfit food, and
provide for the seizure of unfit food, give effective protection to the
consumer.
Ice Cream
The Food Standards (ice Cream) Regulations, 1959, and the Labelling
of Food (Amendment) Regulations, 1959, have been made jointly by the
Minister of Health and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. They
came into operation on 27th April, 1959, and repealed the previous Order
of 1953-
The ice cream regulations prescribe amended standards for ice cream
and introduce separate standards for "dairy ice cream" (or "dairy cream ice"
or "cream ice"), and for "milk ice".
The legal Standards of Composition for ice cream are as follows :-
(a) Ice cream shall contain not less than 5 per cent. fat
and 7½ per cent. milk solids other than fat so, however, that
where ice cream contains any fruit, fruit pulp or fruit puree
it shall either conform to the above standard or, alternatively,
the total content of fat and milk solids other than fat shall
be not less than 12½ per cent. of the whole including the
fruit, fruit pulp or fruit puree, as the case may be, and such
total content of fat and milk solids other than fat shall
include not less than 7½ per cent. fat and 2 per cent. milk
solids other than fats
Provided that as respects any ice cream sold, or offered
or exposed for sale under any of the descriptions hereinafter
specified, or under any such other description as is calculated
to lead an intending purchaser to believe that he is purchasing
ice cream of any such description as is so specified, the
standard of composition shall be as follows :-
(i) Dairy Ice Cream, Dairy Cream Ice or Cream Ice
shall in each case contain not less than 5 per cent.
milk fat and no other fat (save as may be introduced
by the use as an ingredient of any egg, any flavouring
substance or any emulsifying or stabilising agent) and
not less than 7½ per cent. milk solids other than fat,
so, however, that where any Dairy Ice Cream, Dairy
Cream Ice or Cream Ice contains any fruit, fruit pulp
or fruit puree it shall either conform to the standard
of composition for that ice cream, or alternatively,
the total content of milk fat and milk solids other than
fat shall be not less than 12½ per cent. of the whole
including the fruit, fruit pulp or fruit puree, as the
case may be, and such total content of milk fat and