PRESERVATIVES IN FOOD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12831, 27 November 1903, Page 7

PRESERVATIVES IN FOOD

THE USE OF. BORACIC ACID. Presa Association—By Telegraph— Copyright. SYDNEY, November 26. (Received Nov. 26, at 10.29 p.m.) A parliamentary select committee appointed to inquire into the use of preservatives in food, has .presented a progress report dealing with boracic acid, and embodying the following conclusions : —Butter: There can be no question as to the necessity or harmlessness ! for use up to 2u grains of boracic acid to the pound. Milk: 1 if sufficient care is used in handling, with.rapidity of distribution, - a chemical .preservative is unnecessary. Condensed milk: With the proper use of sugar for the sweetened variety and sterilisation for unsweetened, combined with hermetically sealing, preservative is unnecessary. Concentrated milk; 35 grains to the pound is necessary. Table cream: 18 grains to the pound is necessary. The additions of the boracic acid mentioned will cause no injury to health, and should bo permitted. The committee recommends that vendors be compelled to attach a label to the various articles disclosing the nature and quality of the preservative it contains. Medical witnesses examined hy the committee declared l that as a result of extensive use externally and internally both by children and adults, even of large doses extending over a considerable period, they noticed no ill effects whatever. They further expressed- the opinion that the high infantile mortality from diarrhoea, which resulted in many cases from partially decomposed milk, could be lessened or .prevented by the addition of boracic acid.