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96
School
Samples.
61 samples of milk were taken on delivery at 49 schools in the Borough.
All the samples were genuine. The average composition of the samples was:
Fat, 3.43 per cent., and solids-not-fat, 8.70 per cent. These figures are lower
than the average figures obtained for the Borough supply. Three samples,
P 57, H 52 and H 54, were 3.1, 3.1 and 4.6 per cent, deficient in fat respectively
according to the conditions of the L.C.C. contract.
The Chemical
Treatment
of Food.
Out of 1,521 samples taken under the Act, 1,490 were examined for
preservatives and 33 samples were found to contain sulphur dioxide. Out of
38 miscellaneous samples examined, 20 contained sulphur dioxide and one
sample contained hydrogen peroxide. Boron compounds, so prevalent in the
past in butter and cream, and salicylic acid in jam and fruit wines have
disappeared; formalin is still occasionally detected in milk. The Regulations
allow no other preservatives than prescribed amounts of sulphur dioxide or
benzoic acid to be present in certain foods.
In the main, the foods in which preservative is allowed are fruit pulp,
jam, sugar, etc., where without preservative at the worst fermentation or
mould growth could take place, but in meat, where decomposition or putrefaction
could take place, sulphur dioxide is prohibited. Details of a large number
of cases in which sulphur dioxide was detected in minced meat are given in
this report. The sulphur dioxide in itself is not harmful, as when the meat is
cooked practically all the preservative is driven off; the danger is that the
preservative, which is sprinkled in powder form over the meat, is added to
mask evidence of decomposition and to keep the meat longer than it should
be kept, in order to be sold. The powder does not come in contact with all
of the meat which is in a state of incipient decomposition. Some of the
samples of minced meat examined were almost black and obviously old meat;
generally the amount of preservative found in these samples was small, as
the preservative gradually disappears. The amount found, therefore, may only
represent a small part of the quantity originally added.
In Germany the following preservatives will shortly be allowed in use :
Ethyl and propyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, including their sodium
compounds and mixtures, hexamethylene-tetramine (hexamine), hydrogen
peroxide, benzoic acid, boric acid, formic acid and sulphur dioxide. Packed
preserved food must, however, be labelled "chemically preserved."
Apart from the preservation of food, the great excuse for the chemical
treatment of food is that the public demands a white product and in order to
fulfil this demand bleaching agents, etc., must be used. Sulphur dioxide and
hydrogen peroxide have the dual quality of preserving and bleaching, the golden