BORIC ACID.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 234, 4 October 1927, Page 7

BORIC ACID.

USE IN NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

PROHIBITION POSSIBLE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. Tho Minister of Health (the Hon. J. A. Young) has under .consideration a proposal to prohibit the sale of butter in New Zealand containing boric acid. The Minister says that although the use of a small quantity of this preservative ih butter may not do much if any harm, there is a general consensus of opinion among public health medical authorities in Great Britain, America, and other countries that the accumulative effect of the use of preservatives in. a nuinbe. of foods is decidedly injurious. There is also this to be considered: that the use of certain chemical preservatives in foods in which deterioration has already set in helps to conceal that fact, and thus, may enable unwholesome foodstuffs to be sold.

If the Government decides that the British purefood law so far as butter is concerned shall come into force in New Zeala.nd, it will simply mean that all butter consumed locally will be free (as it . mostly is now) from boric acid as is the exported article.

On January 1, 1928, the hew pure food regulations in England so far as they affect butter and cream will come into force. This means that New Zealand and other butter. imported into England must be free from boric acid.