JAMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 109, 24 September 1912, Page 6

JAMS.

IMPROVED PACKING METHODS. The housewife who preserves fruit for winter use knows how indispensable jrl '.as jjirn arc for the purpose. Tins arc el' >aper, but, if possible, she avoids them. The acids in the juice act on the tin coating of the interior, and the preserve, if not in time positively injurious to health, is sometimes unpalatable, and almost always regarded with a suspicion which is absent when glass jars are used. But in putting up preserved fruit in the large quantities turned out by preserving companies, glass receptacles are practically out of the question for many reasons, of which cost is one; and the tin • canister is almost universal. "I consider," says Mr. Otto Heshner, in a report to the West Sussex, County Council, "that the preserving of acid fruits in tin canisters is improper, and fraught with danger to the health of the community, unless the canner takes some means to protect the inner surfaces of the canister from the attack of acids." For very many years this inside coating has presented a problem to manufacturers of preserves, but the difficulty /has now been overcome, and it is only a matter of time before reform in this matter becomes universal. In New Zealand a I local firm —Irvine and Stevenson's St. George Preserving Company—have led the way. For the past year all their canisters containing fruit preserves, jams and fish have been coated inside with an enamel or lacquer impervious to the action of fruit acid. It is described as an "anti-acid, non-poisonou3 gold enamel lacquer," and the tin plates from which the canisters are made are coated with this viscous preparation, and then placed in an oven kept at a high temperature, the result being a smooth, even coating like glass, on the surfa.ee of the j tin. Soldering the ends of the cans to the cylindrical portion has been discard- { ed in favor of an ingenious method by ' which the flanges of ends and sides form an equally good, airtight joint. Thus the contents of the cans come in contact with nothing but the lacquer coating of the interior; neither lead nor tin can react on them. The process of producing what may be designated as a "safe, sanitary and aolderless" canister is not unaccompanied by some expense, but by means of labor-saving machinery the cost has been brought within practicability from' the business aspect, and the year's trial—preceded by many years' experimental work has thoroughly satisfied- Mr. Stevenson. We understand that thus far only one other preserving

firm in Australasia use similar precautions with their cans, an Australian manufacturer putting jams up in this way.