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Hokitika Guardian, 11 November 1933, Page 4

direoljy due to deficiency or excess of certain food constituents,” says Sir

George Newman in his annual reportupon the health of-the British people.

“As instances in which there exists legitimate suspicion that a commercial process may involve a definite risk to health or debasement of nutritive value 1 may cite (a) the fumigation of food with toxic gases to' destroy insect pests; (b) the presence of heavy metals in food due to the materials or containers used in manufacture and storage; (e) the increasing use of poisonous insecticides ancl fungicides in agriculture and horticulture; '(d) the culture and horticulture; (d) treatment of flour with bleaching and improving agents; (e) ‘fortification’ of foods by artificially added vitamins; (f) the uncontrolled and unregulated exposure of food to ultra-violet says, or (g) the introduction of new synthetic colouis and flavours. Innumerable processes have been introduced in which the dangei lies not in any direct menace to the health of the individual, but in the possibility that the nutritive value of the food has been adversely affected, or that the food has been so- treated as to give a totally false impression of its nutritive value. There is a tendency at- the present time,” Sir George adds, “for manufacturers to avail themselves of the publicity value of recent vitamin research by adding vitamins empirically to a variety of foods, without due consideration of the results which may accrue from such haphazard practices.”