Mixed luck with date stamping

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34043, 6 January 1976, Page 14

Mixed luck with date stamping

Manufacturers of certain lines of meat, dairy, and shellfish products are having difficulty complying' with Government regulations regarding date-stamping of containers. Under the Food and Drug [Regulations, 1973. manufacturers of such foods as • corned, cured, and jellied meats, sausages, yoghurt and cottage cheese, cream cheese, and shellfish other than fresh oysters, are rquired to datestamp the containers. The regulations updated a practice manufacturers had • long observed, of stamping [containers showing the date •of packing. The only difference was that the old method "of stamping was in code—[which tire manufacturer and • [retailer understood but the j consumer did not.

- Health authorities in iChristchurch confirmed yesterday that there had been mixed progress in implementing measures requiring easily understood dates to be put on packages. The reason was that only some of the machinery required to do the stamping satisfactorily was available. Some manufacturers had imported machines for stamping work but they had not done a sufficiently good job. Last July, the then Minister of Health (Mr McGuigan), i acting on complaints from ; consumers, said that the period of grace given to manufacturers to introduce the date-stamping had ended and that prosecutions would follow for those who did not comply. The department appears to !be satisfied that manufacturers generally have taken I all reasonably steps to introIduce date stamping.