Report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the use of preservatives and colouring matters in the preservation and colouring of food : together with minutes of evidence, appendices and index.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Food Preservatives.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the use of preservatives and colouring matters in the preservation and colouring of food : together with minutes of evidence, appendices and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/548
    REPORT. To the Right Honourable the President of the Local Government Board. Sir, THe Committee appointed in 1899 to “inquire into the use of preservatives and colouring matters in the preservation and colouring of food, and to report (1) whether the use of such materials, or any of them, for the preservation and colouring of food, in certain quantities, is injurious to health, and, if so, in what proportions does their use become injurious ; (2) to what extent, and in what amounts, are they so. used at the present time,” have the honour to report as follows :— 1. We have held meetings to receive evidence on 26 days, during which we have examined 78 witnesses. 2. We have received from the Foreign Office information as to. the law and. practice in regard to preservatives and colouring matter in food which prevail in certain foreign countries (Appendix I.), and. similar information from the Colonial Office in regard to the law and practice in the British Colonies (Appendix IT.). 3. Having in. view the special bearing of the subject of our Inquiry upon the dairy industry we appointed a Sub-Committee, consisting of Dr. Bulstrode and Mr. Huddart (the Secretary), to. visit Denmark, Amsterdam, and Hamburg. The reports of this Sub-Committee will be found as Appendix III. The same Sub-Committee, with the addition of Professor Tunnicliffe, afterwards visited Ireland, and their report on the practices found in force in that country is given in Appendix IV. 4. Dr. Bulstrode and Professor Tunnicliffe visited two factories in’ this country, where artificial colouring is used in the preparation of preserved vegetables. The managers not only gave information as to the method of manufacture, but were good enough to allow independent experi- ments to be made in order to ascertain the relative effects of various amounts of copper sulphate upon the intensity and permanence of the colour produced. - Professor Tunnicliffe also submitted samples of preserved peas bought in open market on the Continent for analysis. The results are given in Appendix V. 5. In Appendix VI. are given the results of a series of experiments on the effect of preservatives upon sucking pigs, as conducted by Mr. A. D. Hall (Principal of the-South Eastern Agricultural College, Wye), and Mr. H. S. Hammond, in collaboration with Professor Tunnicliffe. 6. In addition to the results of experiments and observations conducted at the instance of your Committee, there have been placed at our disposal the results obtained from independent observations conducted by Professor Tunnicliffe and Dr. Otto Rosenheim upon the effect of certain preservatives upon the metabolism of children, also further results by the same observers with regard to the digestibility in the human subject of the compound of copper which gives to preserved pease their green colour. These papers form the substance of Appendix VII. (a.) (d.) (¢.) Dr. Otto Rosenheim was deputed to attend for the Committee the International Congress of Medicine which was held at Paris on August 2nd and 9th, 1900, and to report to the Committee relative to the papers upon Preservatives and Colouring Matters read at the Congress, and upon the discussion which followed. 4637. a 3.