PRESERVATIVES AND COLOURING MATTERS 
IN FOODS 
By E. W. HOPE, M.D., D.Sc. 
The importance of avoiding waste in regard to food stuffs of any kind does 
not need to be emphasized, but it is of greater importance to insure that the means 
taken to prevent waste are not calculated to injure health. 
The preservation of meat and other perishable foods by means of cold is, as is 
well known, largely resorted to in this country. The successful application of cold as 
a preservative receives its best illustration in the case of the Copenhagen milk supply, 
into the details of which it is not now necessary to enter. 
In this country the use of chemical preservatives is exceedingly common, and 
in the case of some very perishable articles, such as milk and cream, it is to be feared, 
takes the place of care and cleanliness. 
It is established beyond dispute that chemical preservatives, whilst checking 
putrefactive changes in the food, may also check the fermentative processes of 
digestion. 
Boracic acid or borates, as a preservative, is found in margarine, butter, ham, 
bacon, pork, fish, cream, and milk. In margarine and butter the use of it has been 
common for many years ; it is usually more or less uniformly mixed with these 
articles, and about 30 grains to the pound have been found. It is also met with in 
sausages, pork pies, and pastry. An article sold as 'Arcticanus Special Cream 
Compound' is a mixture of boracic acid and borax. 
Salicylic acid and salicylates are met with in jam, but the manufacturers appear 
to be bona fide anxious to minimise the quantity. In the case of British wines, 
however, as well as in the case of some unfermented drinks, sometimes both boracic 
acid and salicylic acid have been found, and there are not evidences of the same care 
on the part of the manufacturers to limit the amount, the quantity varying from 7 
grains to 150 grains of salicylic acid to the gallon, and 4 grains to 100 grains of 
boracic acid to the gallon. 
It is perfectly plain that if it is absolutely necessary to add either of these 
drugs, and if 7 grains to the gallon is enough in one case, there is no necessity to 
throw in 150 grains to the gallon in another case. 
In prosecutions which have been undertaken in regard to British wines, the 
defendants have actually had the effrontery to put forward the defence that the 
chemicals employed were useful as drugs, and they had actually induced medical men 
