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Part III.
Importation of Articles of Food.
(VIII.) Officers of Customs and Excise are empowered to enforce Part III.
(IX.) (1) Where an article of food is landed (i.e, imported in a sealed vehicle
whose examination is deferred or by airship) outside a Port Sanitary
Authority, the Local Authority at the place of landing has jurisdiction.
In every other case a Port Sanitary Authority.
(2) The importer and the public analyst shall each receive a portion
of the sample taken for analysis.
(X.) Where an offence is found, the Commissioner of Customs or the Port Sanitary
Authority shall communicate to the Minister the name of the importer
and facts as to the destination of the consignment.
(XI.) No person shall import an article of food not in accordance with the Regulation
as to home manufacture before detailed (Part II., 4, 5) or any cream
which contains "thickening."
Part IV.
Miscellaneous.
(XII.) Export or re-export goods are exempted from these Regulations or, in the
case of butter, such as are intended for use as ships' stores.
(XIII.) Analyst's certificates are good evidence unless the defendant requires the
calling of the analyst.
Onus of proof as to the intention of sale for export or re-export or of
the use of butter as ships' stores, lies with the defendant.
(XIV.) A person if so required shall give an officer acting under the Regulations
every germane information and reasonable assistance.
(XV.) The Milk and Cream Regulations, 1912, and amending order 1917 and
The imported Food Regulations, 1925 (so much as relates to *paragraph
"f"—1st Schedule) are revoked.
To sum up—
(1) Two preservatives only, sulphurous acid and benzoic acid, may
be used, whether in home manufactured or in imported food.
(2) These preservatives may only be used in certain scheduled articles
and in quantities for each article limited by schedule.
(3) Certain colouring matters are prohibited by schedule.
(4) "Thickening" of cream is prohibited.
(5) Preservative sold as such requires a specific label stating percentage
strength.
(6) Certain foods (scheduled) containing preservative must be
labelled.
(7) Two years' grace is afforded to butter and cream and to articles
into which butter enters on manufacture, and one year and a half to
articles into which bacon, ham and margarine enter. To food stuffs in
general, one year.
In comment, one may say that the difficulties to manufacturers
which will inevitably arise are the direct result of absence of former regulation.
The Regulations imply a side step into the path of true progress
with regard to the nation's supply of pure food.
The restriction of the scheduled foods which may contain preservative
to wet and dried fruits, jams, pickles and beverages, with restriction
of the amount and nature of the preservative, is very satisfactory.
The interest of manufacturers using boric acid are very large, and the
controversy on boric acid is proportional to this interest. The correct
view point in sanitary interests is not whether boric acid can be used
but whether it can be omitted and the free flow of foodstuffs maintained.
The members of the Royal Commission think boron can be omitted
from food. I hope the proof of this will now be forthcoming, as I strongly
hold the opinion that it is at least inimical to free digestion of food in
the human organism and at worst upsets the mechanism of digestion, both
per se and by cloaking other deleterious matter.
*Refers to tripe, tongue, kidney and edible offal containing formaline, fluorine, boron, salicylic acid, formic acid, sulphurous acid or benzoic acid.
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