VINEGAR. (Hansard, 25 June 1924)

§ Mr. HANNON

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to prevent the sale of liquids or products made in imitation of and purporting to be vinegar. This is a short but exceedingly necessary Bill to fix a standard of quality for vinegar. It is one of the defects of the Food and Drugs Act in this country that no provision has been made for fixing the standard of vinegar, and as vinegar, in spite of its peculiar quality, is a necessary article in the households of this country, there is a constant danger that large numbers of poor people will be defrauded by purchasing an inferior article. The object of the Bill is to fix a standard compelling the vendor, whether whole sale or retail, to sell to the public, as pure vinegar or malt vinegar, vinegar brewed in accordance with the principles for the making of malt vinegar. This Bill proposes to define malt vinegar and imitation vinegar. Malt vinegar is that which is a brewed product prepared by the alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentation of barley or some other cereal, the starch of which has been converted by malt. Imitation vinegar, with which, no doubt, hon. Members of this House are familiar, is prepared by diluting commercial acetic acid, staining it and fermenting it so as to make it resemble as near as possible pure vinegar. Sometimes sulphuric and other deleterious acids are put into vinegar in order to give it greater acidity.

In many cases the poorer people in purchasing vinegar do not ask for malt vinegar or pure vinegar, but for "vinegar," and under an unscrupulous salesman the possibility is that they get some of this imitation commodity. It is to protect these poor people who use vinegar, and who at present have no protection, that I ask leave to introduce this Bill. The Bill is exceedingly simple and follows, in the main, the principles which have been already adopted under similar legislation in the United States if America, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Canada, namely, provisions for defining what vinegar really is, provisions for the labeling of vinegar so that the public will not be deceived, the fixation of penalties for the violation of the law, and arranging procedure in relation to offences under the Act.

445 There are two important public documents which relate to the sale to the public of impure vinegar. One of these was the very valuable Report prepared by Dr. Hamill, of the Local Government Board, in 1908, after an exhaustive inquiry as to the conditions under which vinegar was being sold. In this Report he points out that vinegar lends itself peculiarly to being imitated, and when imitated it really becomes a dangerous drug. That Report, which hon. Members can consult for themselves, says: Acetic acid obtained from ordinary commercial sources is largely used in the manufacture of vinegar intended to simulate as nearly as possible vinegar which has been produced by the fermentation process. It goes on to say that acetic acid is imported into this country in large quantities from Germany and Holland. It would be most unfortunate if acetic acid, imported into this country in large quantities, is to be converted into imitation vinegar and sold to the public to their detriment without their having any protection under the law. I can hardly conceive the House of Commons tolerating an anomaly of this kind any longer. Still more recently an inquiry took place under the Profiteering Act, when a recommendation was made on the same subject, and one of the Sub-Committees on Trust, in Command Paper 1355 of 1921, pointed out that The fact that brewed vinegar costs twice as Bauch as unbrewed vinegar results in unbrewed vinegar being sold by dealers at a margin of profit much greater than that which is made on brewed vinegar. Human nature being what it is, you will find unscrupulous persons who are prepared to sell the unbrewed vinegar at a large profit. This Bill seeks to prevent the unhappy purchaser from exploitation of this character. The Bill itself consists of nine very short, simple Clauses. It first seeks to define what vinegar is, what distilled vinegar is, and what fermentation vinegar is. It then lays down the conditions under which labels are to be attached to the glasses or bottles or other vessels in which vinegar is sold. Then it prescribes penalties, and finally defines the procedure under which action is to be taken. This Bill really fills an important gap in the legislation relating to the purity of the food of the people. In the absence of a standard of vinegar you cannot bring a prosecution against an unscrupulous vendor, and I am sure that 446 the House, when it reflects on this fact, will have no hesitation in allowing this Bill to be introduced.