Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1922.

  • Holborn (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1922. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/104 (page 34)
    34 (i.) So far as we are aware, there is no Section in the Food and Drugs Acts 01 subsequent Regulations which make it obligatory on the part of a manufacturer to state on the label that a preservative has been used and the amount, and we shall esteem it a favour if you will kindly refer us to any Section or Regulations bearing on the subject.'' (ii.) In reply to your letter we beg to say that we have always understood that for the small amount of salicylic acid used in our cordials it was unnecessary to make any statement on the labels. If you will be good enough to inform us of the state of the law on the question we shall take care to keep within its provisions. The general standard guiding local authorities in the institution of proceedings is that suggested by the recommendations of the Departmental Committee in a Report dated 1901. These recommendations have not been given effect to by law; the standard has been found unsatisfactory moreover in connection with the greening of preserved vegetables; although three (of four) members of the Departmental Committee recommended that the use of copper salts should be prohibited, one member, in a minority report, recommended that its use should be allowed, subject to declaration and limitation to two grains of crystallised copper sulphate per pound. This minority recommendation leads to manufacturers assuming that a small quantity of sulphate of copper is allowed by the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts for the purpose of keeping the colour of peas. This assumption is wrong, but these two recommendations, neither having legal force, increase the difficulties of local authorities administering the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. It is frequently urged by traders and their legal and technical advisers that the effect of the recommendations of the Departmental Committee is to establish a right to use chemical preservatives, although the correlative recommendation that its presence should in all cases be declared is not so generally accepted, and that its presence should in all cases be declared is not so generally accepted Local authorities are constantly called on to incur the expense of expert evidence in support of prosecutions for preservatives in food, and appeals from one Court to a higher and more expensive Court. Further difficulty is experienced by reason of the conflicting views on the use of preservatives. It will be remembered that although the Departmental Committee recommended the limitation of boric acid in cream to 0.25 per cent., the Milk and Cream Regulations fix the limit at 0.4 per cent. I have already mentioned that the Departmental Committee recommended that the use of copper salts for greening preserved vegetables should be prohibited, but one member of the Committee favoured its use, the quantity not to exceed two grains per pound crystallised copper sulphate. Yet there is considerable evidence that a quantity not exceeding one grain per pound is ample for all trade purposes. And again the Departmental Committee recommended the limitation of salicylic acid in liquid food to one grain per pint, but a case recently taken before a Metropolitan Police Magistrate where the amount exceeded two grains per pint, was dismissed with costs against the Borough Council.