HEALTH NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 491, 22 October 1928, Page 14

HEALTH NOTES

CORDIALS AND BEVERAGES (Contributed by the Department of Health.) The principal object of this article is to draw attention to and offer a guide in purchasing the numerous bev* erages offered to the public either as “soft drinks" y for consumption, or in a form requiring dilution. With the coming of the warmer weather there will be no doubt the usual offering of a wide variety of names, attractive labels, and multi-coloured mixtures. Beverages may be obtained in three forms: (a) Cordials prepared for dilution with water; (b) carbonated drinks bo* ad ready for consumption; (c) “concentrated” liquids and “crystals” sold to be made up in the home with sugar and water to make cordials ready for dilution as required. Each of these three gener classes is in turn subdivided, and the varieties must be labelled according to the kind of materials used in their janufacture. Cordials may be labelled either “pure fruit,” "flavoured” or “artificial.” It will be obvious that there is nothing superior to a pure fruit cordial. There is ample evidence of the health-giving value of fruit juices. The regulations require that only sugar water and preservative may be added to fruit juices if they are sold as pure fruit cordials or syrups. "Flavoured” cordials are usually made from essences derived from fruits, but it is not difficult to imagine that in making essences either from fruit skins or

juices or both skins and juices, the must be an absence of that certain ... ind finable “life” qua :ty that eife. in the juice before it has pajJ through 'he various processes 0 ; manufac -o. Essences are so mucunlike original juices that it is neces sary to permit the addition of artificial colour in order to make a presentable looking article. The third phase u the “artifi \ cordial.” Although it cannot b shown conclusively that ihas harmful effects there is no useful evidence that can be assembled in its defence. To place before childrec such drinks as, say, artificial rasp, berry cordial is like sitting the children in a draught between an open door and window and asking them to imagine they are having a motor drive Carbonated Drinks To pass now to the drinks bottled ready for immediate use. These may be made in the same degrees as cordials, i.e., "pure,” “flavoured,” and “artificial,” but of course are diluted to a greater degree with water for ready use. None of the pure grade, that is, drinks made direct from the fruit have been observed on sale. An example would be a lemon squeezed, juice sweetened and watered and then bottled. The great proportion of these drinks will be found to be labelled "flavoured.” They are made from essences. In some cases such as mating lemon and orange essences only the oil from.the skin is used. There is no addition of juice. Consequently citric acid or tartaric acid must be used in order to give the drink the necessary acidity in its flavour. Colour is also added for the sake of appearance. However, the drinks in this class make quite presentable . and wholesome beverages assisted by the effervescence of the carbonated water with which they are made, but owing to the forced flavour and excessive sweetness in many cases, their thirstquenching properties are often nuili* fied. Once again reference must be made to artificial beverages in this class. They have nothing to commend them. Concentrated Essences Come now to the small medicine bottles filled with so-called “concentrated” essences for making beverages in the home. These are simply a mixture of citric or tartaric acid, colouring matter, and flavouring essence to which you add your own sugar and water. Sometimes a gummy substance is used in order to hold the ingredients together or perhaps to make the mixture look thicker In support of its claim to be concentrated. If the flavouring essence is claimed to be a genuine fruit derivative the mix ture may be described as for making flavoured drinks, but if the flavouring is an artificial ether, chemically concocted, the word “artificial” must appear on the label for the mixture. Summed up, any cordial or beverage sold under the beading of “pure fruit’ has everything to commend it; if described as “flavoured” although the flavouring agent once may have been in the fruit its arrival at the stage lor use in the mixture has been by devious paths in traversing which many of its pristine qualities may have been destroyed so much so that in many cases it would be difficult to prove that It had ever seen fruit. Finally, in the “artificial” class any such beverage with a fruit name should not be assumed to have any of the virtues associated with fruit, or that it is of any greater value than a drink of sweetened water.