A DECORATIVE DIETARY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20316, 26 January 1928, Page 18

A DECORATIVE DIETARY.

The Grocery and Provision Exhibition grows more pleasing to the eye every year as the producers study with com* petitive ingenuity new attractive ways of putting up their preserved fruits and jams and decorating the tins of meats, fish, and vegetables. Tinned vegetables play an important part in the exhibition at the Agricultural Hall, from the asparagus tips grown and canned in Hawaii to the tinned carrots from Switzerland. But one misses the delicious aroma —sugary, spicy, dusty, and pungent —that tickled the nostrils of customers in the old-time grocery and provision store (says a writer in the Manchester Guardian). The sides of bacon still retain their fragrance, and the cheeses demand grateful recognition, for the grocer still knows how to cut them up, and the exhibition offers prizes for his skill. But the tendency nowadays is to have all the other scented or dusty things done up in packets or tins ready to hand over the counter. One big manufacturing firm which is rapidly developing its confectionery side supplies all its toffee and other sweets in boxes or tins because the grocers do not care to weigh out small portions. Between the housewife who likes to buy even her lemon peel by the tin shredded and ready for use and the shopman who wants his goods ready weighed and packed the retail business has undergone a transformation and lost in charm what it has gained in convenience. It is developing on other sides. Expert grocers must have enough legal knowledge to cope with the laws about merchandise marks, preservatives in foods regulations, and weights and measures.