The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1925. PRESERVED FOODSTUFFS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 March 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1925. PRESERVED FOODSTUFFS.

'Jpiivflrrd pv^ning 1 hy 5 o’clock in Hfl\vcr?i. Alannia, Normnnbv, ukaiawa, I!:tham. Mangatoki, Kfipongft, Alton, It’irleyville, Paten, Waverley, Mr.koia. 'Ahnkarnara, Ohangni Mereinere, Fraser IJoail, and Ararats.

If the people of Great Britain have to rhoo.se between; war-time conditions; of food, and eating butter containing the usual trace of boric acid added to the colonial article for its better preservation, there is little doubt what the outcome, will be. Public opinion must prevail, and when public opinion is supported by scientific men of the standing of Dr. John Glaister, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, the best thing the Ministry of Health can do, having regard to its owit dignity, is to creep quietly down the back stairs. Quite pmsibly boric acid may not be good for us, but then neither is tea-, nor coffee, nor ice-cream, nor pastry, nor

now bread. The employee* of the bo rate factory where l>r. Glaisiter mail© his, tests do not appear to have suffered any ill-effects after nearly forty years’ work right in the midst of the fumes, so there does not .appear much reason to fear that the few grains of boric acid which we spread on our daily bread will send us to an, early grave. The people of Britain, equally with, the people of New Zealand, might be the better physically for partial starvation; hut margarine and dripping will make a very weak appeal after good New Zealand butter, and most consumers, with the permission, of the Ministry of Health, will conveniently overlook the boric acid. There can be no question that the use of preservatives! of any kind in, foodstuffs is a matter for the most careful regulation.; but the people must he fed, and there is nothing in the present controversy at Home, likely to throw any Taranaki herd on the market. If the worst came to the worst a new taste would probably come to the producers’ aid. Side by .side with the boric acid controversy in the British press is running a discussion on the lack ol Vitamin! A, which the layman will better understand by the alternative label “the sunshine factor in food.” Thiis what promotes growth, wards off rickets, and builds up a resistance to influenza, and tuberculosis. It is the actual outcome of sunshine, and most of the city population at Home gets all too little of it. Milk and butter are expected l to supply the lack, hut research has shown that in winter, when British and Danish cows are stall-fed, the vitamin content of their nnilk is considerably reduced. Pending further research, we are told, many Medical Officers! of Health a,re advocating the use of dried milk imported from sunny pastures in the colonies. So, if we cannot get our butter Home to satisfy the regulations, perhaps we may be able to do up neat, four-ounce packets of Vitamin A for the benefit of the pale-faced Britisher. So long as the sun shines upon u,s there will be hope.