PURE FOOD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15550, 6 March 1914, Page 6

PURE FOOD

The new food regulations should go a long way to protect the public against adulteration and the sale of foods and drugs under false names. There is fortunately no reason to suppose that injurious ingredients are commonly used in foods produced in New Zealand, but it has become customary to cheapen foodstuffs and sell them under a description which gives no indication of the cheapening process. Even when the added ingredients are harmless the consumer is entitled to know what he is purchasing and this principle is none the less sound in the cases in which the food value of the article sold may be increased by a mixture which destroys its technical "purity." There may be room for objection to some of the requirements of the law. It would, indeed, be remarkable if in such a mass of detailed regulations there is not some reasonable ground for protest against unintentional harshness affecting manufacturers and packers. But taking the regulations as a whole their purpose is so admirable and necessary that the public interest demands their strict enforcement in all cases where evasion is attempted.