CONSTITUENTS OF MALT VINEGAR

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 December 1926, Page 7

CONSTITUENTS OF MALT VINEGAR

PROSECUTION UNDER PUKE FO r >DS ACT. CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night Alleging that vinegar made wholly or partly from tapioca instead of grain, is not malt vinegar, the Health Department, in the Magistrate s Court to-day, prosecuted Sidney Rupert Cowley, mahager of the Dominion Compressed Xeast Company, charging him with a breach of the Pure Food ;and Drugs Act and regulations. Mr. Cowley, on behalf of the company, admitted that tapioca was used in the manufacture, and also in that product sold as malt vinegar.

There was much legal argument as to whether the regulations were reasonable, and much scientific evidence ■on the chemical and other propertied of vinegar. For the company it wan that tapioca was generally regarded; as a cereal, that its properties wey in all respects similar to those of true grains, and that the vinegar made by the company from grain with a proportion of tapioca was equal, if not superior, to vinegar made wholly from cereals. The Departments did not allege that the defendant’s vinegar was harmful to the health, but simply that it was not pure malt vinegar, and should not be offered for sale as such. Decision was reserved.