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tion and preservation of food for human consumption which have
their origins in antiquity. From the "raising" of bread to the
fermentation of wine and from the making of cheeses and yoghurts
to methods of preservation such as bottling, jam-making, pickling,
salting and drying, we witness the "techniques" of applied microbiology.
Inevitably, these processes have become "big business"
and the food inspectors are in constant contact with the canners,
bottlers, brewers, distillers, millers, bakers, freeze-driers, deepfreeze
suppliers, dairies and meat and poultry traders for all these
operations create avenues to possible food contamination. Other
difficulties presenting themselves include the fermentation and
"hanging" of certain foods until desired chemical changes have
been achieved and are then terminated by heat or alcohol. In
many of these instances determination of the line between food
sensitivity and food poisoning becomes a somewhat delicate technical
decision.
Still further difficulties for the food inspectors and public
analysts are to be seen in long-lived fission products such as
strontium 90, iodine 131, caesium 137, etc., the residues from
nuclear processes which will be held in the soil for many years to
come and will eventually find their way into the nation's food.
Closer attention is now being directed towards the establishment
of standards of composition and nomenclature for various commodities
in relation to their packaging and labelling particularly
in relation to meat products. High pressure sales promotion in the
advertising fields has resulted in attractively labelled foods which,
on analysis, are found not to be what they are purported to be.
With the intricacies of misleading labelling and the very real
dangers of infection and contamination, together with the rapid
advances in food technology, the burden of responsibility on the
food inspector, the public analyst and the bacteriologist grows
daily more onerous. Relatively few people realise the tremendous
effort and highly specialised knowledge needed to ensure purity
of the public's food supplies, especially the part played in this
drama by the Borough's own food inspectors.
New Legislation
The Preservatives in Food (Amendment) Regulations, 1971.
These Regulations, made under Sections 4 and 123 of the Food
and Drugs Act, 1955, came into operation on the 1st September,
1971, and —
(a) impose limits on the amounts of sodium nitrate and sodium
nitrite which may be added to bacon and ham.
(b) impose a limit on the amount of sodium nitrate which
may be added to pickled meat; and