PRESERVATIVES AND FOOD ADULTERATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13889, 29 April 1907, Page 4

PRESERVATIVES AND FOOD ADULTERATION.

The action of the police recently in Auckland in summoning dairymen for selling milk containing boric acid opens «p a very wide question, and one which has a certain amount of interest for people in J)unediu. Milk is so largely used as. an article of food for children, and especially for infants, that it is of the utmost importance that ifci should be supplied of the .purest and highest quality. In this southern portion of New Zealand the average temperature is sufficiently low to obviate largely the necessity of using preservative?, though it would be for the benefit of the community if all the milk sold were first pasteurised, lint in wanner parts, where the keeping of unsterilised milk is a somewhat difficult matter, tho temptation to use preservatives is very considerable. Here, though boric acid, or some of its preparations under other names, as " Preservaline," etc., are largely used in the preservation of butter, butcher meat, sausages, etc., there is probably little or none used in fresh milk. Boric acid docs not appear to have any very marked deleterious action on healthy adults, but for those who have defective digestion, and especially for very young children, it is most undesirable. About £10,000 worth of food : preservativcs—including boras, salicylic acid, formaldehyde, and various mixtures with fine-sounding names—is annually introduced into the country, and the majority of these are used in connection with the dairying and butchering business.' In regard to other food materials, there di) not seem to be many deleterious substances introduced into the staple articles -of diet, though there is a good deal of fraud in regard to some of them. An examination of the Health Department report for I'JOG shows that a certain amount of check was exercised at the larger centres of population on the sale of deleterious articles of food, though the analytical results' obtained apparently did not reveal much adulteration, There is, however, room for improvement m much of tho spirits and beer sold' in j the lower class of hotels, in cordials' and temperance drinks, and in such articles as baking powder, ground pepper, olive oil (a good deal o: which is quite innocent of olives), jam, wine, and other food substances on tna markets. The' habit, of blending, so largely in vogue among vendor of food materials, opens the door to a lm?e amount of fraud. It is noteworthy that, while in all the other centres the police evidently exercise some supervision over the food sold, they seem to do nothing whatever in Dunedin in regard to this important public duty. Once during the

.past year they mado an examination of milk, but wo believe we lire correct in saying that no other substances were examined. It would l)e pleasant to think that this is because all foqd sold Ui Dunedin ig above suspicion. Unfortunately this is not the caso hero m-'-re than anywhere else. There is no doubt that tlio public is victimised to a considerable extent, and so aro those tradesmen and manufacturers who are too scrupulous to make or sell adulterated articles. It if) to bo presumed that there is an inspector here whose 'duties involve looking after our food supplies. Wo would therefore suggest that his duty to the public demands some action in this direction, so that any uneasiness felt on this score may lie allayed,