WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BACON

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 298, 15 September 1927, Page 13

WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BACON

THE PUBLIC HEALTH (Preservatives, etc., in Food.) ■ BORACIC ACID—AN ENEMY TO DIGESTION In these days of substitution and adulteration in'food products it is important that every article intended for consumption in the home should be above.suspicion, and that every method possible should be adopted to protect the lady of the house from the wiles of those who try to palm off something which they term “just as good,” and those who’sell apparently regardless of the requirements of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. Buying Good Bacon. Some people say they cannot get decent bacon here. It was Foster Fraser who once made a hop, step, skip, and carry one journey from Dunedin to Auckland, and when an inquiring lady asked him what he had to say about New Zealand, he is alleged to have said “What is there to say ?” If that remark was made it was one that was made surely without any thought, and most New Zealanders would say that the author of that remark had not used his eyes. Unthinking people will tell you that one cannot get decent bacon in New Zealand. With some articles one gets just what one is prepared to pay for. Unfortunately that lias not been the case with bacon. Often one paid for the best and got the worst, as the retail price of all brands of bacon is the same. Thus it is different from other articles which are paid for strictly according to quality. The great difficulty for years past has been to distinguish recognised qualities from the most inferior on the market. Bacon is generally sold in the rasher. When a tin of jam is bought the purchaser knows what brand he is getting, but in the past it has been impossible, in some instances, to tell what brand of bacon is being bought, because, un- , fortunately, there have been found amongst those who have sold bacon men unscrupulous enough to joist upon the nublic.a substitute for Swan Brand, when it has been asked for, and the purchaser may not have been able to tell the difference from the look of the meat. The Swan people, however, have been alive to this difficulty and have now hit upon a device which will enable the public when they ask for Swan Brand to know they are actually getting it, A Unique .Method of Identification. In the British Navy all the cordage has running through the centre of it a scarlet thread, and an inch cannot be cut off without it being found thus marked, and just in a similar way the Swan Bacon people conceived the idea of having their bacon marked in such a way that each rasher can be identified. After a great deal of research they registered the red, green, and blue stripe, and these colours are applied to every piece of first-class bacon that leaves the factory, and a Swan rasher not bearing these colours cannot be found Now. it cannot be said tha.t good bacon cannot be procured in New Zealand. The way to make sure is to demand Swan Brand, and see that the red. green, and blue stripe is on every rasher. If one does not get good bacon it is entirely owing to want of effort on one’s own part. If, when buying bacon, one were just as discriminating and exacting as is a man who demands a certain brand of tobacco, or as a woman is over a box of face powder, one would get the quality bacon that would exactly suit requirements. Curing Ingredients. A. very important point in connection with the Swan and Pineapple production is now approached. The day has gone by when the bacon curer carries bis formula of the cure in his waistcoat pocket. Scientific research has been brought to bear on bacon curing in recent years to a very marked degree. The best brains in the industry have given the result of their findings to the world, and it is well known there are only a few simple ingredients which are allowed by law, and when applied give wholesome meat. Someone may say that a certain make of bacon is cured without salt. Bacon ■ can be cured with a greater or lesser quantity of salt, but it will probably be found that iu place of salt boracic acid or some other harmful ingredient has been used—an enemy to mankind from a dietetic standpoint; and then, too, sometimes brands of bacon cured with substantial quantities of boracic acid are offered, but boracic, though a good preservative, is injurious to health. The result is that the public get preserved or suspended pork, but not cured bacon. Evil effects following the consumption of such foods has been proved to be so serious that the Governments of France, Germany, and other Continental countries have prohibited the importation of bacon which contains boracic acid. America, with a generous regard for the health of its people, years ago enacted that it was an offence to use boracic acid or borax in meat products. Unfortunately this wise foresight was not exercised by the British Government until recently. Now England has awakened and enacted that it. is an offence to use boracic acid in the curing of meats and other food products, and anyone using it will be liable to prosecution. Health Department Moving. It is very assuring that the Health Department is moving iu the matter with the best of intentions, and with the successful prosecutions which were made in Auckland recently there is no doubt that the consumer of bacon in New Zealand in course of time will be safeguarded from the deleterious effects of boracic acid. In the recent prosecutions, counsel for the defendants is alleged to have said that it was a common practice to use Boracic acid in the curing of bacon. It may have been the practice with some, but iu fairness to those curers and to the Swan people who do not use boracic acid, that statement must not remain uncontradicted. The Hutton people do not pretend to use any secret method as far as their ingredients are concerned, but by the adoption of methods peculiarly their own, the Hutton’s people have succeeded in producing a breakfast delicacy which tempts the palate of the most fastidious, and they certainly refrain flora the use of harmful ingredients, and at the same time give strict observance to the regulations under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, so that the public when buying Swan Bacon can be assured of its freedom from anything of a harmful nature. ’Fite meat in the first instance is taken from the best selected pigs, and the Swan people are out to assist the Health Department in every way. The public can also help in the good work by demanding uon-boracic acid bacon. That thev can make sure of by always seeing that they get the red, green, and blue stripe that is shown on every rasher of first-quality bacon.—Published by *VratwemeuL