BACON AND HAM CURING

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 247, 19 July 1928, Page 7

BACON AND HAM CURING

BORACIC ACID PRESERVATIVE

SUSPENSION OF. REGULATION EXPLAINED

The. reason for the temporary relaxation of the enforcement by the Health Department of the regulation prohibiting the use of boraclc acid in the cure of bacon and hams was explained by the Minister of Health (Hon. J. A. Young) in the House of Representatives yesterday. The suspension, he said, was authorised on account of the representations made by a' considerable section of the bacon-curing trade of the very serious losses suffered during the past summer season oh' account ■of the absence of boraclc acid in their cures. . In addition, representations .were made by the Departments 'of Scientific and Industrial Research and of Industries and Commerce strongly urging that the regulation should be amended to permit of the use of ‘boracic acid ■ until such time as the former Department could . carry. out inquiry and research in the bacon-curing industry with a view to the elimination of boracic acid. Both Departments supported their requests by actually-known losses made during the last summer. “So soon as the large number of bacon-curers in New Zealand who have relied on boracic acid for the past twenty years or more in the preservation of bacon can revise their methods and equipment, and adopt the scientific use of salt,‘nitre, sugar, spices, and smoking, both public health and private profit will,, in my opinion, be best served,” added the Minister. “The suspension of the enforcement of the regulation is temporary only. It is true that the use of boracic acid will permit of a moist cure, but there is no reason to believe that that consideration entered into the representations made by the protestants. These representations were the outcome of the serious loss of bacon caused by decomposition and the fly-pest.”