Report of the Department of Health / New Zealand.

  • New Zealand. Department of Health.
Date:
[1965]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Department of Health / New Zealand. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/112 (page 23)
    Meat Products There were 59 prosecutions of retail butchers in 1964 for exceeding the limits for preservatives in meat products set by the Food and Drug Regulations 1946. This shows a substantial increase over last year’s already high figure. In this age of good refrigeration and cool storage it is difficult to understand why butchers persist in adding an excess of chemical when more attention to good processing and storage would achieve a similar result. In some cases, the manner in which preservatives are added to mince¬ meat and sausages suggests that butchers may consider the substances to be essential ingredients of the recipe and include them regardless of need or desirability, because over a long period of time it has been customary to do so. It is possible that when butchers more generally realise that the manufacture of meat products should be limited to a quantity that with proper cold storage will remain acceptable, the apparent need for chemical preservation will no longer be felt. Food Complaints and Seizures During the year the Department investigated 870 complaints of unsound or unfit food, and 39 prosecutions arose out of these cases. Examples of complaints were a piece of rubber in butter, a ball bearing in jam, cement plaster in an Easter egg, a first-aid dressing in cake, a sacking needle in flour, a staple in a Christmas pudding, small stones in a pie, a worm in milk, dead mice in a packet of sweets and a packet of peanuts, pieces of metal in loaves, as well as the dismal discoveries of mould, insects, rodent droppings, and cigarette butts. There were 85 occasions when departmental officers found it necessary to seize and destroy food unfit for human consumption, and health inspectors from eight local authorities seized unsound food, mostly fish, on 23 occasions. Publicity for Food Offences Sometimes in medieval villages the butcher, baker, or brewer whose goods fell short of expectations or who gave short measure had the prospect of a period in the stocks or some other ignominy. In these enlightened days publicity for conviction and fine in the Courts is the counterpart. Publicity is likely to be a greater deterrent for the trader than the fines commonly imposed. It is therefore a matter of some concern that, in at least one city, more often than not, food prosecutions are failing to be reported in the daily newspapers. Drugs The full impact of the provisions introduced in 1962 into the Food and Drugs Act 1947 for the notification of “new drugs” and “changed drugs” is now felt by the drug firms and in the Department. During 1964 there were 251 detailed notifications, mainly under either section 11b or section lie. Some labelling of drugs is insufficiently readable or prominent because undue space is given to trademarks and designs which, quite apart from the name and address statement, give a quick visual identification of the manufacturer or render the label attractive. A pragmatic rather than an artistic approach seems more apt to the labelling df drugs. That the