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juice contained only 20 per cent of juice and should, therefore, have been
described as "Mango Drink".
The total solids on canned tomatoes was only 5.08 per cent indicating
10-20 per cent of added water, and another sample had obviously been canned
with a little dilute brine but no list of ingredients was given.
A blackcurrant jelly jam contained 20 per cent of fruit instead of 25 per
cent but the manufacturers disagreed with your analyst about the interpretation
of the Regulations.
A hazelnut spread should contain not less than 70 per cent of hazelnuts
but a so-called hazelnut spread possessed a predominating flavour of chocolate,
hazelnuts being present in smallest quantity in the product.
A piece of Turkish delight was stated by a complainant to be stale but this
was not agreed. It was, however, considered to be incorrectly labelled
as it consisted of a rather hard variety of Turkish delight coated with
milk chocolate.
Some mixed vegetable and a salsify Schorseneren were satisfactory products
but were stated to contain "no chemicals" whereas the added salt is of
course a chemical.
A can of stewed steak contained 149 grams of muscle meat and 121 grams of
cartilage, this latter being a larger proportion than that normally present
in the animal body; the beef in a beef curry consisted of cubes of composite
material made from meat fibre and starch, and some pork sausages
contained 31.5 per cent of lean meat and 37.5 per cent fat, that is
54.4 per cent of the total meat was fat. The Sausage and Other Meat
Products Regulations require lean meat to be not less than 50 per cent
of the meat.
A corned beef was stated to have been prepared from cooked beef with the
addition of salt, sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate, but the salts must,
of course, be added before cooking the beef.
There is a tendency with certain manufacturers to use slightly less meat
in meat products than is required by the Regulations. Two samples of
Chopped Ham and Pork were 5 and 8 per cent deficient in meat, a chopped
pork was really a luncheon meat, and 2 samples of stewed steak with gravy
were 1.5 and 3.5 per cent deficient in total meat. Some pork chipolatas
contained only 61 per cent of meat and were 6 per cent deficient in meat,
while four meat pies were 18 per cent, 22 per cent, 30 per cent and 43
per cent deficient in meat respectively.
A meat and liver pate contained the equivalent of 102 per cent of meat showing
that it had dried out, but it also contravened the Weights and
Measures Act 1963, as no weight was marked on the pack.
Some kidney was submitted because it disintegrated on cooking. This was
due to the process used to tenderise the meat before killing the animal.
The process of tenderising is used on the stunned animal and is very
rapid, but the enzyme appears rapidly in the kidneys, so that they are
unsuitable for cooking in the ordinary manner though they make good gravy.
Claims made for meat tenderisers are exaggerated and the label on one
stated that it was inactive at low temperatures. This is incorrect and
the claim that meat treated with the tenderiser required less cooking
is risky as bacteria may not be destroyed if a meat happens to be contaminated
.
A can of pork luncheon meat was badly iron stained due to faulty lacquering.
B.34