USE OF SALOX RED ON MEAT (Hansard, 19 December 1963)

§ LORD DOUGLAS OF BARLOCH
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

LORD ST. OSWALD
My Lords, Salox Red is one of several proprietary preparations containing sugar, ascorbic acid and nicotinic acid which have been used by butchers to maintain or restore the fresh appearance of meat products. Inquiries I have made suggest that these preparations are not used extensively. There is no specific requirement for the labelling of meat so treated, but any pre-packed meat must declare its ingredients on the wrapper. The Fool Standards Committee have now advised my right honourable friend that they consider that the treatment of meat with such substances deceives the customer as to its freshness and may in some cases mask deterioration of it. Together with the Food Additives and Contaminants Sub-Committee, they will be giving further consideration to these substances and the implications of their use, including the possible dangers to health, and they recommend that meanwhile the practice should be suspended. My right honourable friend accepts this recommendation and proposes, acting jointly with his right honourable friend the Minister of Health, to make regulations accordingly. The Food and Drugs Act, 1955, requires the interests concerned to be consulted before such regulations are made. This will be done.

§ LORD DOUGLAS OF BARLOCH
My Lords, may I thank the noble Lord for the Answer he has given, which is a good deal more forthcoming than that his colleague gave in another place a 378 few days ago. Would it not be correct to say that these substances are also used as ingredients in a great many other foods, and that that aspect also deserves consideration?

LORD ST. OSWALD
My Lords, in answer to one comment of the noble Lord, I think I ought to point out that it was only the day after my right honourable friend answered a similar Question in another place that the Food Standards Committee took it into consideration, and, therefore, I am able to give a more forthcoming reply than he was able to. It is quite true that at least one of these substances occurs in other foodstuffs: in fact, in bread it is obligatory. But everything depends on the quantity. It is suspected that in certain cases these colouring matters may have been used in a harmful quantity and had ill-effects on people.

§ LORD SHEPHERD
My Lords, can the noble Lord say whether these regulations require Parliamentary approval, and, if so, when we can anticipate their being laid?

LORD ST. OSWALD
My Lords, to the best of my knowledge, they do not require Parliamentary approval; in fact, I am virtually certain that they do not. On the other hand, the Minister is bound by the Food and Drugs Act to consult the interests concerned before such regulations are brought into force.

§ LORD SHEPHERD
My Lords, can the noble Lord give any indication when these regulations will be issued?

LORD ST. OSWALD
My Lords, not in terms of time. But I can assure the noble Lord that no time whatever will be wasted.

§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILL
My Lords, while I am sure we all congratulate my noble friend Lord Douglas of Barloch on having extracted this Answer from the Minister, may I ask whether this indicates a change of policy, and whether, at last, the Government will prevent the addition of what are known as additives to our food? Is the noble Lord old enough to recall that before the Clean Milk Act, which has been of such tremendous value to this country, criminal people—farmers and distributors; but only a minority, of course—added brown material to milk, together 379 with water, to make it appear more creamy? It took many years for the Government and the public to rise up and denounce this practice. Although the Minister has made a small concession to-day, still, every noble Lord here in each meal that he has eaten to-day has consumed some colouring material, some material put in for the process of preservation, of an unknown quantity and an unknown quality. Can we therefore ask the Minister whether he will take further action to go forward and prevent this really criminal adulteration of our food?

LORD ST. OSWALD
My Lords, I feel fairly certain that I have led a rougher life than the noble Baroness and eaten more extraordinary things than she has in her time. I must tell her that this does not represent anything particularly new. We act on the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act. When a case of this kind is brought to the notice of my right honourable friend, he, as I have explained, has to refer it to the Committee; they give an opinion upon it, and then he, as he is also bound to do, approaches the interested parties. He is in this instance, as I have said, determined to act as soon as possible.

§ LORD STONHAM
My Lords, can the noble Lord say whether the inquiry to which he referred will be confined to Salox Red, or will it cover other possible substances that may be used to disguise the true nature of the products? I have in mind, for example, the production of a palace blue to disguise the condition of the Conservative Party?

LORD ST. OSWALD
My Lords, so far as the last substance mentioned by the noble Lord is concerned, there is no need of it at all. As regards the first part of this question, we have other substances in mind, and if there are any on the noble Lord's list that are not on ours, and he will communicate with me, I will do my best to see that they are passed on.

LORD HAWKE
My Lords, does not my noble friend think that this state of affairs discloses some lack of precision in the Food and Drugs Act: that substances can be used in food which are found to be deleterious, and then have to be banned?

LORD ST. OSWALD
No, my Lords. It seems to me quite right that when a matter of this kind is brought to my right honourable friend's notice he should be bound, as he is by the legislation, to refer it to the interested parties.

LORD HAWKE
But somebody has to be poisoned first.