HC Deb 14 July 1937 vol 326 cc1261-4
Mr. Macquisten

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to prohibit the use of dyes or colouring matter in the preparation of herring, haddock, and other sea fish. The Bill which I propose to introduce may seem a homely little Measure, but if it becomes law I think it will have an important bearing on the comfort and nutrition of the general body of the people. For generations herring was one of the main food supplies of the people. It was cheap, nutritious and very good to eat. It had to be supplied fresh, and in former times horsemen used to meet the herring-boats as they came in and carry the fish in saddle-bags over the hills. You will still see in country places traces of what were known as "herring roads." In those days people got their fish fresh, but that is not the case to-day. The fish goes to Billingsgate and Glasgow, and is carried all round the place. It is some days before the supplies reach the people who consume them, and carried fish is not as good as fresh fish. The same applies to the herring. It occurred to some people who knew something about the curing of other food to see whether the process of smoking would not be equally useful in preserving herring. They smoked the herring and they called these herring "keppers," that is to say, herring that would keep. [Laughter.] It is not a joke; it is a historical fact; the word "kipper" is a corruption.

There is no finer, more luscious, or more delightful bit of food than an honestly smoked kipper. It must be smoked with oak chips and smoked for a considerable period, and it takes a man with a knowledge and appreciation of his job to do it. I know one who was such an artist that he would not supply me with kippers unless the herring were of the best. His handiwork was held up to public approbation in a page of one of Stephen Leacock's books. A wonderful fellow he was, and still is, and now and again I get some kippers from him. If kippers could be got in proper condition the population would eat them in very large quantities. But what has happened with the kipper is what has happened with everything else—the usual fraudulent and foul imitators have come upon the scene. They take the herring, they do not smoke them properly, they smoke them with any old wood, if at all, and dip them in a rich brown liquid; and the fish come out looking like well smoked kippers. But they are not kippers. To those who suffer even from slight indigestion they are no good. The best kipper I have tasted in recent years was in the Rand Club in Johannesburg. Those fish had been sent all the way from Scotland. There is a magnificent opening for the Herring Board if they would take up the successful kippering of fish. They could open in the United States a market which would absorb all the surplus herring of Great Britain, if those herring were properly kippered. But these dyed things are ruining the market, and the man who turns out good kippers cannot get rid of his products. The dyed kipper is not a smoked kipper at all; it is a dipped kipper.

When I first raised this matter a lot of shops put up the notice, "No dyed kippers here"; but they soon relapsed into sin again. They say that the dyed kippers are cheaper than the others. Of course they are; they are cheaper and nastier. I put the matter before the Minister of Health of that time, and I regret to say that I got a discouraging answer from him. He said that his experts were not satisfied that dyed kippers were injurious to health. I do not know any of these experts. They may or may not bury their heads in the sand sometimes, but if they can absorb dyed kippers they must have the digestions of ostriches. If all the fish that were thrown into the sea the other day could have been properly kippered and cured they could have been sold throughout the country at a cheap rate. All these remarks apply equally to the finnan haddock. Why should it be dyed? It is just as good if not coloured. The intention there also is to pretend that it has been smoked. But it has not been smoked. This Bill ought to go through, and the Government ought to give facilities for it. It will do far more good than any Herring Board in providing people with cheap and wholesome food. I bring in the Bill not only so that the population may get wholesome food at a cheap rate, but in order that these fraudulent people may cease to dye, and that the herring trade may live.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Macquisten, Mrs. Tate, and Mr. Boothby.