Dept’s Warning To Sellers Of Food

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30482, 2 July 1964, Page 1

Dept’s Warning To Sellers Of Food

The Health Department intended to take '‘new steps, through the courts if necessary,” to enforce the section of the Food and Drugs Regulations dealing with the labelling of packaged goods, the supervising inspector of health in Christchurch (Mr J. B. Snoad) said yesterday.

Packaged foods must be labelled to show what they are, their net weight, whether they contain any preservative or artificial colouring, and the name and address of the packer or seller.

“We have issued a lot of warnings—now we intend to take action,” Mr Snoad said. “We are particularly concerned about certain packages sold with no labels at all.

We think the public have a right to know such things as the weight of an article they are offered, and where it comes from." There was generally no principle of public health involved in this matter, but the Health Department had to police it because the department was charged with operating the Food and Drugs Regulations in general, Mr Snoad said.

Asked whether any category of food product was particularly prone to be put on sale unlabelled, Mr Snoad said that one example was poultry. Firms selling goods in printed packets had often left off some of the needed information, but on being

warned by the department, most of them had come into line fairly well, though some were still lagging.