PURE FOOD AND DRUGS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 41, 13 March 1909, Page 6

PURE FOOD AND DRUGS.

WHAT THE DEPARTMENT IS ' DOING. Wellington, March 10. ' The Minister for Public Health (the Hon. D. Buddo) gave a New Zealand Times representative some idea of the work being done by the Public Health Department to protect the community from impure and adulterated food. The latest Food and Drugs Act gives the Department extensive power wllem it decides what shall constitute the I standard quality of any article in common use ; the manufacturer or retailer who provides something inferior will do so only at the risk of a heavy tine. Standards have already been adopted for a number oi articles, and the work i.s going on steadily. "I have secnj standards from other countries, and made careful comparisons with those proposed for New Zealand," explained Mr Buddo. "1 want to be caretul and to go slowly, so. as cO fix standards which are not so high as to be impossible or difficult of attainment, while at the same time the consumer is guarau- , feed a good article. I realise that adulteration is bound to creep into tht manufacture of many of our foods, anel j if it is to be. permitted it must bo of a useful, and certainly 'not a harmful, character—as harmless, for instance, as the mixing of chicory with coffee.'' The Minister remarked that what had been said in regard to inevitable adulteration did not, of course, apply. Animal products varied considerably, according to the animals and their feed. Enquiries and experiments were still going on with the object of fixing reasonable standard of purity, and lie hoped before long to set them up in connection with every class of article in daily consumption which could be adulterated.