"PURE" FOODS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 49, 26 August 1922, Page 11

"PURE" FOODS

WHAT WE WERE ABOUT TO RECEIVE, ;•'..-

It is said to have been the custom with Eastern princes ;to keep monkeys or slaves, whose business, it was to taste each dish provided for ;His Highness to see that,the cook had not worked out a private grudge with the soup. the Eeed_ for precautionary measures, still exists,' but they are taken. in a different manner. New Zealand .has a Pure Food and Drugs Act, with a Dominion Analyst and inspectors to see that it is observed. An extract from the report of the : Dominion Analyst shows this ,to b» necessary. "A great variety- of' foodstuffs was submitted by the, Department of Health (it is stated).' The 'list comprises aerated waters, baking powder, bloater paste, butter, 'butterlac,' 'cakolene,' canned frait, cheese, chocolate, liqueurs, cider, cocoa, coffee, and chicory, coSee-and-chicory essence, container for preserved fish, cordials, > cotton-seed oil, cream, cream .. of tartar, custard powder, 'cremonne,' disinfectant, 'egglite' colI'onring, egg powder . (so called), egg;% yolk, Epsom salts, essence ;6r^cahbny!',:. ( food ■ flayrturs, < 'foodlac,', yJE^iiit^.'jelJyi i.igjhger, ground rice, her,ring«i.noney, ice-cream, ioee, jam 'kine/ lart;ilanonade,: liquors, malt ' extract, nifrgarine, nut chocolate^ oatmeal, pepp«r;\pioklesj: pork and beans, . prunes, •sarjdines and silds,, sausage*, tea, 'thoma■'tiM^lomatb^VysauceV.'syinißgair,' wheat, s*Ksj i Two of the biking powders wer» ' b€^frolikl i^qnwed.;:itrenjri|th, . -and . one aontaioad a large amount ofalum. (Only two -^ th« b^ter, sample^ did not. comply wit* the regulationt, both containing more th^n the 16 per cent, of w*ter allowed. .•Eleven cream of tartars contained; more ,th an the permitted amount of lead, and one exceeded the limit for arsenic. Thirteen samples of ice cream were,deficient in butter-fat, and six of these had been thickened .with starch. Starch tad been added to .two, othen also. Cordiab and aerated waters well (repaid eiamination. Salicylic acid was found in. twenty-four lemonades, and one each of lemon squash, lime juioe, and nkspberry. / Saccharin; .was detected in flentonado pnrchaaed in Wellington, and subsequently in' samples obtained from all part* of the Dominion. Approximaiely one-half of all examined conUinea saccharine; in contravention of the regulations, and the practice of using this sweetening subftanoe in lieu of wholesome sugar received a necessary check/Considerable attention'was paid by health inspectors during the year to canned goods, all blown tins being condemned, .and' doubtful ' tins submitted for examination. Decomposition was evident in three lots of fruit, three of fish, and one of cheese. The labelling of foodstuffs still requires .attention;' for example, costard powders, coffee, and coffee essence were' frequently found to ■ have. muleading '. statements on the outside labels." „■■■ , .•■'■.■- . ■". ■, ;:•■■ •'