ACID IN BACON

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 429, 10 August 1928, Page 1

ACID IN BACON

MR. LEE’S PROTEST

QUESTION OF PUBLIC HEALTH

(THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. The Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, was taken to task this afternoon by Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East) for suspending the regulation preventing the use of boracic acid in preserving bacon. The suspension, said Mr. Lee, introduced a danger to public health. Five firms in Auckland, he said, could manage to turn out good bacon without using acid. The Minister’s action was extraordinary. In the face of this the Minister was sending a man abroad to investigate methods of bacon-curing, and the Public had to pay. The suspension gave a feeling that certain firms had friends at court. The Hon. A. D. McLeod: What firm a re you battling for? Mr. Lee: I am battling for no firm, but for the health of the neople. Mr. T. M. Wilford (Hutt) said the tvhole question rested on the effect of acid preservatives on the health of consumers. If the effect was detrimental, the regulation should never have been suspended. The Hon. J. A. Young, in reply to Mr. Lee, said that the position was that he was not prepared to amend the law to legalise the use of acid, but for t^ e P resent b© was prepared to give the industry a few months’ grace to let it investigate other methods. If, as result of this investigation, they were unable to improve their methods, then they would have to fall into line.