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152
articles imported from abroad—the percentage of adulterated articles found
was 5.11 per cent., being a satisfactory decrease from the corresponding
figures of previous years.
As on other occasions, both your Public Analyst and myself have
commented during the year on the unsatisfactory situation created by the
unsettled state of affairs with regard to the presence of preservatives in
foodstuffs.
In reporting on 24th March, 1908, upon two samples of kidneys containing
excessive quantities of boric acid, it was pointed out that a man
making a reasonable meal of such treated material would ingest in the one
case one-and-two-thirds, and in the other two-and-a-half times as much as the
maximum dose of boric acid when used medicinally. Further, there is no
justification for the presence of such quantities of preservatives, and there are
special objections to their presence at all, as the food may be in a state of
decomposition before treatment, the evidence of which would be masked by
the drug used.
One element in this question, viz. the situation both of the trader and the
Public Analyst owing to the absence of any regulation on the subject, is put
very clearly by your Public Analyst in his Report for the third Quarter of
1908, thus—
"Whether salt, saltpetre, boric acid or sulphurous acid should be
"permitted to be used are all fair questions for investigation and settle"ment,
but such settlement should be by Act of Parliament, and not by
"the tedious process of prosecuting vendors for having these or other
"preservatives present, and moreover it seems scarcely fair to bring a
"criminal charge against a vendor merely to settle a scientific question.
"The Board of Agriculture have had statutory powers since 1899 to
"limit or prohibit preservatives in dairy produce, and the Local Govern"ment
Board have, under the Act of 1907, power to limit or prohibit
"the use of any preservative in butter, margarine or milk-blended butter.
"These departments have not published any regulations, and
"although they both have the resources of the Government behind
"them, hesitate to commit themselves.
"This condition of things is not only a hardship to the trader, but also
"to the Public Analyst, who has to take the responsibility of passing an
"article as genuine although containing preservatives, or on the other
"hand of condemning an article on account of the preservatives present.
"As to which course to take he is left entirely without guidance.