View report page

65
(1) Whether the use of such materials or any of them for the
tion and colouring of food is injurious to health; and, if so,
in what quantities does their use become injurious.
(2) Whether it should be required that the presence of such materials
and the quantities present in food offered or exposed for sale
should be declared.
The terms of the reference are somewhat restricted, and one could
have wished that the Committee had been given the means to conduct
independent investigations. It is well known that the standard of purity
of food and the methods of distribution do not compare favourably with
those in other countries, notably the United States of America and in
Australia.
The Committee invited me to give evidence before them, which I did,
and supplied figures taken from the City Analyst's reports over a period
of 20 years, which showed the beneficial effect of the steady action which
the Council had pursued during that period. I also drew attention to
the experiments which had been carried out, which showed that the
addition of so-called preservatives did not lead to any improvement in
the purity of our food or to better methods of keeping and distributing it.
These chemicals are not strong enough to kill the really harmful bacteria,
so that contaminated food appears fresh and wholesome. Greater use
could be made of "cold" for the preserving of food than is at present the
case, and it would probably prevent a considerable amount of wastage
which now takes place.