MARGARINE ANDTHE LAW

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 82, 5 April 1924, Page 16

MARGARINE ANDTHE LAW

ENGLAND REQUIRES 10 PER CENT. OF.-BUTTER.

One of the points- to'which attention has been 'directed in recent' prosecutions in England'under the Sale of Foods and Drugs Acts is that under section 8 of the Amendment Act of 1889 it is " unlawful to make,.sell, or expose for sale margarine that contains more: than .10 per cent, of buttev-fat." This will doubtless be surprising to many, because for a long time now medical us well as other public speakers- have been quoted as supporting the belief that, whereas butter is one of the best of foods, margarine is little more ■ than a lubricant. ' How this belief originated it would'be difficult to discover, for authorities like Dr. Robert Hutchison have repeatedly claimed that margarine, whether made from animal fats or from nuts and milt, is practically a 6 nutritions as butter. One medical authority, in conversation- with! a' representative of t the ..''Manchester Guardian ", recently,' stated that lOSlb ot margarine are equal in nutritive value to 1001b of" butter. ■ . '

What has probably helped at least to spread "and uphold the belief is the comparatively recent discovery of the vitar mine'principle in foods, and / the definite pronouncements that, in this vital .principle ■, butter is 'exceptionally rich, .and margarine wholly, or almost wholly, lacking, and that _ where margarine is used in place of butter .the. deficiency should ' be made up by means of This seems to be most important in the case of children, because the prevalence of: the diseases of rickets ,is attributed lo; absence in the food:of the particular] vitamine—known as "fat-soluble A"1 —which abounds in butter, milk, animal .fats,, and 'glandular tissues.1 . . '

It is, ■ therefore, generally agreed that children in'those households where, for reasons of economy, margarine takes'the place of; butter ohght to have an ample supply of milk; and as it is; in these same households .^hat the consumption of milk is lowest,'there would seem to bea.tolerably good case for an alteration o£ -the law to permit the 'mixing of a larger-percentage of butter with margarine, especially in these days of high prices. Apparently'the quantity is limited for the protection of the consumer. • The Legislature has, deemed it necessary, in the words of a Judge in the High Court,, that " butter and margarine should be kept; so to speak, in watertight compartments.". But why the low proportion p£ 10 per cent, has been fixed in Great Britain, Denmark,! and other .countries; the medical ■'authority 'referred' to fas llnable to say. "..