PRESERVATIVES BANNED

Waipa Post, Volume 38, Issue 2285, 26 March 1929, Page 2

PRESERVATIVES BANNED

SOME INTERESTING RESULTS. In a special article in the Yorkshire Post, Mr S. Lineham, 0.8. E., chairman of the provision section, National Federation of Produce Merchants, refeirs to an interesting result of the restrictions in regard to preservatives in butter.

During the year what is commonly described as the Short Weight Act has cojme into force, he writes, and quite a number of marking orders under the Merchandise Marks Act are about to be enforced, and others are on the way. The trade has had another year’s experience of the preservatives in food regulations, and although we did have some summer in 1928, on the whole it was not bad keeping weather, and the losses, although in some cases considerable, were in the aggregate surprisingly small. The effect of these regulations has been minimised by the fact that the imports of ham and bacon from the United States have been much reduced during past years, whereas the imports of the same commodities from the Continent have been much increased, and in the latter case boron preservatives have never been used. Already, before these regulations were imposed, the American bacon and ham trade in this country was rapidly declining, imports since the war having been much reduced, and it would seem that we are within measurable distance of the time when American ham and bacon will be unknown on this market, thus following butter and cheese, large quantities of which used to be imported a number of years ago. There are many reasons for this, principally geographical; but perhaps, the chief is that the taste of the public is more and more for the mild-cured products of Europe rather than the hard cured bacon from Amejrica. Denmark now sends us more than half our total imports. BUTTER FOR THE CONTINENT. One interesting factor arising out of these restrictions has been that the re-export off colonial butter from this country to the Continent has been much) increased. Most of the; European countries already had restrictions against the use of boron preservatives in butter, and now that New Zealand and Australian butter is free frojm any preservative it is becoming increasingly popular on the Continent. The same effect has been noticeable in the greatly decreased direct exports of New Zealand butter to both Canada and the United States. It is estimated that no less than 500,000 boxes (250,000 cwt) will be shipped direct to North America this season. All this has had some effect on the price of butter on the British market.