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or the British Pharmaceutical Codex, whilst others are the result of a deliberate attempt to mislead
the purchaser. The Pharmacy and Medicines Act was introduced in order to ensure that the
public were informed of the composition of medicines they purchased, and was a direct reversal
of the Patent Medicines Acts.
The following legislation or proposed legislation was introduced during the year :—
The most important was the Food and Drugs Bill, which had its first reading in the
House of Lords in November. This Bill is primarily a consolidating Bill and will enable a large
volume of emergency legislation to be made permanent. It will also tidy up some of the law
under the existing Food and Drugs Acts, 1938-1950. Unless an Act of this nature were passed
it would be difficult to retain many Statutory Orders introduced by the Minister of Food during
and since the war. Unlike much of the temporary legislation of the last few years a considerable
amount of thought is being given to this Bill and all interested parties should find an opportunity
to have their views expressed in one or other of the Houses of Parliament.
The Labelling of Food Order, 1953, was largely a re-enactment of the previous Labelling of
Food Order, but it released what are commonly known as biscuits from the necessity of declaring
their ingredients. It permits the labels of intoxicating liquors to be printed either with a light
block print on a dark background or the reverse ; it permits the addition of emulsifying salts
and edible starch, merely to be defined as such, when added to stated foods, and it allows
preparations specified in the British Pharmacopoeia or the British Pharmaceutical Codex to
be sold without a declaration of composition. On the other hand it requires French coffee and
Vienna coffee to be labelled " coffee and chicory mixture " or " coffee with fig seasoning " in
substantially as conspicuous wording as "French coffee" or "Viennese coffee." It also prohibits
the sale of solutions containing more than 15 per cent, of acetic acid by anyone other than a
pharmacist or an authorised seller of poisons unless the labels are marked " Dangerous—not
to be used unless diluted" together with the relevant wording showing the concentration of
acetic acid present.
The Cream and Use of Milk (Revocation) Order, 1953, enabled home-produced cheese and
cream to come on to the market again by removing restrictions on manufacture and sale. It
also permits the use of milk in the manufacture of bread, biscuits, pastries, cakes, ice-cream and
confectionery generally.
The Food Standards (Ice-Cream) Order, 1953, re-enacted the Food Standards (Ice-Cream)
Order, 1951, and reintroduced the minimum fat content of 5 per cent., sugar 10 per cent., and
milk solids-not-fat 7.5 per cent. Seventy-five per cent, of the sugar must be sucrose, i.e., cane
or beet sugar, and the other 25 per cent, may be invert sugar or sugars derived from the
hydrolysis of starch.
The Milk (Great Britain) Order, 1953, replaced with amendments the Milk (Control and
Maximum Prices) Order, 1951, and from the public analysts' point of view the essential factor
in this Order is the permission to sell Channel Islands and South Devon milk containing less than
4 per cent, of fat under their own names, so long as the prices charged are only those permitted
for other milks in the same categories, i.e., as ordinary milk, tuberculin tested milk, or tuberculin
tested farm bottled milk.
The Public Health (Condensed Milk) (Amendment) Regulations, 1953, re-enacted the
provisions of Regulation 60CAA of the Defence (General) Regulations and permit the sale of
full-cream unsweetened condensed milk imported by the Minister, containing not less than 7.8
per cent, of fat and not less than 25.5 per cent, of all milk solids including fat.
The Flour Order, 1953, and the Bread Order, 1953, allow some relaxation in the control
of flour and bread. Any flour, other than that obtained by the grinding of the whole wheat,
must have prepared chalk added to it at the rate of 14 oz. per 280 lb. sack, and all flour of an
extraction rate of less than 80 per cent, is required to have added to it iron, vitamin Bl, and
nicotinic acid in sufficient quantity to ensure a minimum stated quantity of each. The Bread
Order permits the sale of breads other than national bread, so long as national bread is available
for sale when other varieties are sold.
Mention was made in the report last year of the number of Meat Orders introduced. The
Canned Corned Meat (Prices) Order, 1953, and its amending Order, and the Offals in Meat
Products Order, 1953, removed all controls on meat products other than the prohibition of the
use of certain offals in the composition of uncooked open meat products for sale for human
consumption and the control of the retail price of canned corned meat.
During the year there were three Orders relating to the use of oils and fats in food : the
Oils and Fats Order, 1953, the Oils and Fats (Amendment) Order, 1953, and the Oils and Fats
(No. 2) Order, 1953. These Orders relate primarily to the oils which may be sold with or without