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The Food Standards Committee Report on Claims and Misleading Descriptions
dealt with claims on labels and in advertisements and also covered misleading
descriptions, but the extent to which it will be possible to control advertising
ingenuity remains to be seen.
The Food Additives and Contaminants Committee issued a Report on the use
of Cyclamates and concluded that the ingestion of cyclamates is unlikely to present
any hazard to health, though they may have a laxative effect if consumed in substantial
amounts.
The Food Additives and Contaminants Committee also issued a Report on
Solvents in Foods. The Committee considered eight of the best known solvents
would satisfy the needs of the food trade, and proposed only these should be
permitted.
The second Report by the Committee on Safety of Drugs was issued in May,
1966, and made suggestions for the safer use of drugs by stricter precautions over
the control of new drugs, and the sale and labelling of medicines generally.
Composition and Labelling of Food and Drugs
A total of 731 samples of food and drugs were submitted to the Public Analyst
and 184 samples of milk were examined in the Department's own laboratory representing
a sampling rate of 3 4 per 1,000 population. The Public Analyst reported
adversely on 70 samples (9.6%): in 41 cases for infringements of the Labelling of
Food Order, 1953, which requires the majority of pre-packed food to bear a label
giving information as to the name and address of the packer, the name of the
food and the ingredients of which it is composed; in 25 cases the samples were
unsatisfactory, inferior or adulterated; and, in four cases, for both labelling infringements
and unsatisfactory conditions.
There is an increase in the use of the term “solution of acetic acid” amongst
the ingredients of pickled products. The Labelling of Food Order requires the
declaration of the basic ingredients in a food in descending order of magnitude
and the Public Analyst is of the opinion that a technical offence exists in these
cases. This constituent should be shown as “acetic acid” in a lower position in
the list of ingredients or “solution of acetic acid ‘X’ per cent.” Either method
would solve the difficulty in assessing the order of the remaining constituents in the
list.
The Dried Milk Regulations, 1965, introduced for the first time a maximum
moisture content of 5%. One sample showed an excessive moisture content of
6-5 %. The packers have agreed to insert an inner polythene container to overcome
this fault.
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