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21
Alterations are now taking place at the Disinfecting Station.
The stable is being turned into a garage for two motor vans, which
will take the place of the old horse vans that are now practically
beyond repair.
Particulars of cleansing and disinfection, both of premises
and of articles at the Station, and the cleansing of persons, will
be found on pages 76 and 79.
Additional powers for preventing ill-health through Chemical
Contamination of food have been obtained, and the Public Health
(Preservatives in Food) Regulations, 1925, which come into operation
generally on the 1st January, 1927, and on the 1st January,
1928, so far as they relate to butter and cream, debar the use of
chemical preservatives, except as regards a list of articles, 17 in
all, mentioned in a schedule appended to the Regulations, to which
certain chemicals may be added in the proportions stated in the
schedule. The articles include sausages, fruit (fresh or dried),
unfermented grape juice and non-alcoholic wines, cordials and
fruit juices, jam, sugar, gelatine, beer, cider, alcoholic wines and
sweetened mineral waters. Metallic colouring matters containing
arsenic, copper, mercury, lead, etc., are debarred, also gamboge
and some coal-tar colours. Boric acid has also been excluded
from all foods.
One of the great difficulties as regards the sampling of foods
is thus, to a large extent, removed, but the difficulty with regard
to Lack of Official Standards still remains. Thus, many articles
of food, the average composition of which is well known, cannot
be sampled with any useful result. Representations have been
made to the Ministry of Health as regards this difficulty. As an
example of this, as the result of complaints that inferior vinegar
was being sold in the Borough, samples were analysed and a
certificate was returned by the analyst stating that water had been
added, but the Committee were informed bv the legal advisers of
the Council that the Analyst's report of added water was based