FOOD PRESERVATIVES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11495, 30 January 1903, Page 4

FOOD PRESERVATIVES.

Public interest in the adulteration of food* and drinks by the addition of preeervnthres has been awakened m Victoria, by the campaign now being conducted by the "Age" againet the practice, and its »ppea» from * Sydney cable menage th*t thfe mat-. t«rh*B also been occupying the »tt«QtioD of

tione of OBJ , Melbourne coataroporary, and the investigatioxe (rtill being puwued by the Board of Health, under Dr. Gwwwell, hate resulted in n»ay unpleeifiait revtlations m to the extent to which the preeervatioo 0f foods by added chemicals Jβ carried on. Meat and wine are protected from each treatment by efecial legislation, but in milk, bread, beer, jam, conlfrte, and a host of other foods and drink*, the manufacturer or vendor is allowed a free hand, and he apparently exercises it. Borack add ie widely wed to preserve milk. Of 270 samples of draught beer purchased in Mdbourne hotels, 109, on being analysed, were found to contain salicylic acid. Jam is a favorite commodity for the conveyance of drugs of various eorte into the human system, because the use of preservativee doe* away with the necessity for a certain Amount of sugar, and lose time need be epent in boiling jaine, thue fortified 1 against fermentation and decay. Many cordials, as we showed a week or two ago, are eimply chemical* in dieguise, and wo notice that the New South Walee Government analyst, reportiug on nine sampks of raspberry vinegar, describes all of them as artificially prepared mixtures of sweetened water, aniline dyes, and salicylic acid, and declares that with a little less sugar they might be used as red in. Aa to the effect thai repeated doses, of unknown strength, of such preservatives may have upon human beings, there is no doubt that they are all more or less harmful, according to the age and physical condition of the consumer. In certain conditions of illhealth (he consumption of salicylic or boric acid may be attended with serious ooneequences. The addition of these chemicals to foods temds to .preserve them by <feetroyin*g the bacteria which would in time produce decay, and that, according to Dr. Grunbauan, lecturer on chemical pathology at the University of Liverpool, is just why their use in articles of human consumption should be forbidden, "because what is injurious to "toaoteria is also injurious to the eel's of " nwre developed organisms." As • Dr. Graeswell also pointed out, the mischief wrought by these a<Wterart/ed foods and drinks does not stop at the effects produced by the slow poison of the preservatives. Those serve as a cloak for uncleanlinese in the preparation of foods, they may hide the use in the first place of unsound" and poesi'bly decomposed material, and "in spite of the " preservative, the paffc already decomposed "remainW<<o work its mischievous results." The use of these <fruge in foode ie prohibited in a number of countries, and there are hopes that a comprehensive measure, whioh is now being prepared by the Victorian Health Department, to protect all the staple articles of consumption, may become law before long. No raofc useful piece of legislation could engross tho attention of the Victorian or any other colonial legislature.