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The formulated proposals for this legal principle in the trade battern of the European Community have again appeared in the EEC draft Directive. It has been many years in coming, indicating the extreme difficulties encountered in bringing some sort of harmony in the different laws of Member‐states including those of the United Kingdom, relating to the subject. Over the years there were periods of what appeared to be complete inactivity, when no progress was being made, when consultations were at a stand‐still, but the situation was closely monitored by manufacturers of goods, including food and drink, in the UK and the BFJ published fairly detailed reviews of proposals being considered — in 1979 and 1981; and even as recently as the last few months — in “Consumerism in the Community”, the subject was briefly discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the physicochemical characteristics of yellow and red apples cultivars of cashew. This is with a view to harnessing the quality attributes of the different cultivars of cashew. Parameters investigated include pH, refractive index, specific gravity, vitamin C content, juice astringency, chlorophyll and juice yield.

The methods of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) are employed in assaying the physicochemical properties, while the astringency is determined spectrophotometrically according to standard methods.

Results showed that percentage juice yield increases linearly with maturity for both cultivars. A maximum of 79.5 per cent is obtained for the yellow apple cultivars, while 74.1 per cent juice yield is obtained in the red apple cultivar. The pH ranged from 3.73‐4.5 and 3.64‐4.55 for red and yellow apple cultivars, respectively, with a marked fall between seven and eight weeks after pollination (WAPo). Specific gravity and refractive index are of the order 0.999‐1.007 and 1.34‐1.89 for both selected samples. Highest refractive index is obtained in red and yellow cultivars at seven and eight WAPo. The changes in ascorbic acid followed a linear pattern and the maximum values of 249.5 mg/100 ml and 185.5 mg/100 ml are obtained for yellow and red apple cultivars, respectively. Meanwhile, the juice astringency level decreased steadily with maturity and at the ninth WAPo, values obtained are 0.47 and 0.86 mg/100 ml tannin for yellow and red apple cultivars, respectively. Generally, pH, astringency, refractive index, juice content, ascorbic acid and chlorophyll contents showed marked variations between six and eight WAPo, confirming physiological maturity and ripening in the crop species.

Cashew farmers and industrialists will know the best time to harvest the crop when the quality is at its peak.

This paper proposes a novel deep learning based method towards the identification of a pistachio tree cultivar from its image.

The investigated scope of this study includes Iranian commercial pistachios (Jumbo, Long, Round and Super long) trees. Effective use of high-resolution images with standard deep models is addressed in this study. A novel image patches extraction method is also used to boost the number of samples and dataset augmentation. In the proposed method, handcrafted ORB features are used to detect and extract patches which may contain identifiable information. An innovative algorithm is proposed for searching and extracting these patches. After extracting patches from initial images, a Convolutional Neural Network, named EfficientNet-B1, was fine-tuned on it. In the testing phase, several patches were extracted from the prompted image using the ORB-based method, and the results of their prediction were consolidated. In this method, patch prediction scores were in descending order, sorted by the highest score in a list, and finally, the average of a few list tops was calculated and the final decision was made.

Examining the proposed method on the test images led to an achievement of a recognition rate of 97.2% accuracy. Investigation of decision-making in the test dataset could reveal that this method outperformed human experts.

Cultivar identification using deep learning methods, due to their high recognition speed, lack of specialist requirement, and independence from human decision-making error is considered as a breakthrough in horticultural science. Variety cultivars of pistachio trees possess variant characteristics or traits, accordingly recognising cultivars is crucial to reduce the costs, prevent damages and harvest the optimal yields.

The purpose of this important Act—the short title of which heads this article—is to consolidate and amend the laws for regulating the labelling and preventing the importation or sale of food and drugs which are unwholesome or adulterated or incorrectly or falsely described, and for regulating the labelling and preventing the importation or sale of disinfectants which are incorrectly or falsely described. The Act which was very badly needed and in the words of the Minister who introduced it “long overdue” came into force on the 1st January, 1930. It completely replaces five previous Acts which had been in existence for many years, were only operative in their respective provinces, and were unsatisfactory in other respects. So inadequate indeed were they that they may almost be said to have hindered rather than helped the Department whose business it was to administer them. Moreover, if further justification were needed, and for the moment ignoring the interests of the other units of population, it may be pointed out that the present population of European descent in the Union of South Africa is nearly equal to that of twice the population of the city of Glasgow; and that in it is to be found all the administrative knowledge and technical skill on which the future prosperity of the country must depend. The Acts repealed were the Sale of Food and Drugs and Seeds Act of the Cape of Good Hope Province No. 5, 1890; the Adulteration of Food Act, Natal No. 45, 1901; the Sale of Food and Drugs Ordinance, Orange Free State, No. 32, 1906; and two acts of the Transvaal, the Sale of Adulterated and Tainted Foodstuffs, Liquors, and Medicines, Law 29, 1896, and the Storage and Adulteration of Food Stuffs, Law 6, 1898. The last Report of the Department of Public Health issued under the old conditions was for the year ended 30th June, 1929. This states that the Acts which have been repealed were so inadequate and ineffective and contained so many loopholes and ambiguities that efficient administration was in many cases impossible and adulteration even of essential foodstuffs was rife. No power existed whereby standards could be laid down, or false description, or false labelling prevented. For example the Natal Act, which was modelled on 38 and 39 Vic. c. 68 and the Margarine Act, 1897, made no provision for prosecuting the importer of adulterated or unwholesome food stuffs and legal action was only possible if the goods were being sold, and then only the actual vendor could be proceeded against. Under the Cape Province law if an imported food stuff was suspect the consignment could be detained by order of the Department at the port of entry pending analysis or further examination. In the event of the consignment being reported against as unwholeso it might be destroyed. In no case was it allowed go into commerce. In Natal, however, no powe sted in law to detain at the port materials of doubtful purity. ’Up country they went. If the examination or analysis showed that they were unfit for consumption a sort of chase ensued along the railway line after perhaps a delay of a week or more, with, of course, a correspondingly lessened chance of tracing the offending material. The Natal and Cape Province Acts were both administered from Cape Town. Thus it has happened that a firm of importers has consigned one lot of the same kind of goods to a Cape Province port, the other to a Natal port. The reason for the detention of one lot and not the other was not understood, the administration was brought into discredit while public time and money were wasted, and public health perhaps endangered. The Transvaal Act was so generally worded that it gave no protection to the consumer, while that part of Law No. 6, which it embodied, stated that foods for sale must be kept in a special compartment—clean, well ventilated and not connected with a sleeping room or stable (italics ours). It may be remarked that the Transvaal, in which province of the Union this entirely inadequate law was in operation up to the end of last year, includes the Witwatersrand district and the city of Johannesburg with a population of 350,000, the third largest city in the African continent, and the second in importance in the Union. The administration of a code of public health laws in such relatively small and densely populated countries as England, France, or Germany presents in its details the strongest possible contrast to the administration of a similar code in such a country as the Union of South Africa. The former countries are inhabited by people of the same race and language, having the same traditions, mode of life, and standards of culture. They have been long settled. They are amply provided with every means for rapid transport and communication. The existence of large commercial and industrial populations in densely peopled areas has long ago forced on public attention the needs of public health. An enlightened public opinion can readily make itself heard and felt, and in general such opinion is in hearty agreement with authority when such authority enforces the law. But in the case of South Africa and in two out of the three other Dominions, we have to consider at the outset countries of continental dimensions, and in the particular case of South Africa of a continental character if regard be paid to the variety and different levels of culture exhibited by its inhabitants. The area of the Union of South Africa is in round figures nearly half a million square miles—approximately equal to the united areas of Great Britain, France, and Germany. The population is under eight millions, let us say equal to that of Greater London! Administrative difficulties are increased by the mere physical fact of distance and sparse population. It is on record that in some up country districts which are difficult of access supplies of the more grossly adulterated—and this is saying a good deal—or more improperly described articles of food have been sent, and as the officers of the Public Health Department cannot be everywhere at the same time the sale of such things can be effected with little risk of detection. But this by no means exhausts the difficulties that have to be overcome. Out of the total population only about 1,700,000, or roughly 20 per cent. are of pure European descent. About 70 per cent. are negroes, who at the time of settlement were in a state of neolithic culture. Nor are they capable of conforming to the standard of living of the European population. They would, one and all, undoubtedly revert to their primitive condition if the influence of Europeans was, conceivably, withdrawn; about 2½ per cent. are Asiatics; the rest are described as “mixed and other coloured.” Evidently the people of European descent are the only ones who are able properly to appreciate the importance of health laws, but some of them are the very people who, by their misdoings, give the most trouble to the health authorities. Perhaps no country in the world has made so rapid a material advance or altered so profoundly as South Africa has within living memory. It is common knowledge that the gold mining industry is primarily the cause of this. It has attracted a large white population, and negroes come in large numbers to do manual work of a simple kind for a term under contract. The fact that they are under contract brings them in a special way under the protection of the law. Held as they are by the terms of the contract to reside in the district where the work which they have contracted to do lies, far removed from their natural surroundings, and having the minds of children they present a problem of special anxiety to the authorities. They have to be controlled, but their physical welfare has also to be looked to. Their exploitation by a certain class of whites has to be prevented. The last report of the Department of Public Health for the year ending 30th June, 1929, states that while the conditions of the negroes working in the gold mines is on the whole satisfactory, in certain mines it is far from being so. Thus (p. 21) it is stated that the regulations regarding rations issued to the negroes were being “deliberately evaded or not properly carried out.” The anti‐scorbutic ration of germinated beans was found not to have been issued. The bread contained less than the 64 per cent. of wheaten flour, and more than the 36 per cent. of mealie meal as laid down by regulation, and this malpractice was of course difficult, if not almost impossible, to detect after the completion of the baking process. Moreover, such bread was to sight and taste grossly inferior. As bread is an essential food stuff, and as mealie meal is cheaper than wheat flour, this is as good an instance of the kind of adulteration referred to above as could be wished for. Moreover, it is of the meanest possible description. To cheat a negro working for a shilling a day out of his bread ! It is not surprising to learn that overcrowding in quarters which are verminous and in other respects insanitary is a concomitant, that typhoid fever is prevalent to “an excessive extent” in such mines, and that “definite action and improvement are called for.” It is, however, not only the negro working in the mines who is liable to have his inability to protect himself or his ignorance exploited to his own undoing. The negro living far away from these centres of “civilization” is liable to suffer. Thus, in the early part of last year complaints from Rhodesia and subsequent investigation by the Union police authorities showed that “several registered chemists and druggists most of them having businesses in Natal” were selling in the Union and exporting to Rhodesia various nostrums specially intended for the natives (p. 59). Prosecutions were instituted under the Public Health Act, 1919, and the South African Pharmacy Board is actively co‐operating with the authorities to suppress “these disgraceful practices.” These facts well illustrate the special difficulties that arise in the process of administering a public health act when degenerate whites exploit ignorant negroes. The Asiatics are on an admittedly higher intellectual level than the negroes, but their conception of what is right and fit from a sanitary standpoint are on a level with those that we generally associate with the Orient, and as they are apparently in full agreement with that eminent exponent of the principles of the Manchester School in this country who regarded adulteration as a mere form of trade competition, they are no better than some of their European competitors when they see a chance of making money, though swindling their neighbours may be an inseparable accident of the process. It will be readily understood that in such a vast and sparsely populated region with inhabitants having widely separated standards of culture, differences of tradition, requirements and rules of life administrative difficulties must be very great. Thus the last report states that eleven medical officers travelled—during the year the report refers to—over a distance of 77 thousand miles—52 thousand by rail, the rest by road. Four out of the eleven travelled a distance of about ten thousand miles each. Their duties included the systematic general inspection of local authority areas; mines, factories and works inspection—so far as health conditions were concerned; water supply; drainage; housing, including industrial housing; overcrowding and insanitary conditions. These duties, together with others not here specified, indicate the vast economic changes that have taken place in South Africa during the last forty years. These changes are largely in the direction of industrialization and that imposes heavier duties on the officials of the Health Department and still greater vigilance in applying regulations which while up to the level of the best European standard have to be applied in the interests of the mixed community we have described. Within living memory South Africa exported only the raw products of the farm; imported manufactured stuff was consumed for the most part by the white population of the coast towns; while its manufactures were such that “a manufactured article of local origin was a rarity that excited public comment.” The Witwatersrand started on its career in 1886, and under this impulse the country began to be rapidly opened up. The war of 1899–1902 resulted in the Act of Union in 1910 The Great War did the rest. In 1917 the Department of Public Health was formed. For two years it existed as a sub‐Department of the Department of the Interior. In 1919 the importance of its work was recognised and it was made a separate Department under its own Minister—the Minister for Public Health. Under the Minister is the Secretary for Public Health on whom falls the duty of administration. The work of the Department is, as would be expected, most varied Brief reference has already been made to this. It is in contact at many points with national life. Its activities are educational, medical and sanitary.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand consumer's familiarity with fruit processing as well as how fruit production conditions (organic and conventional farming), processing conditions (homemade, artisanal and industrial) and the type of processing (e.g. applesauce, apple cider and apple sorbet) influence consumer perceptions of processed fruits.

An online survey questionnaire was applied to 1,000 people living in France. The people represented different genders, ages (18–60+) and sociodemographic categories. Participants were categorized based on their produce purchasing habits (conventional, local, organic, local-organic). The questionnaire contained multiple choice and five point Likert scale questions. Data were analyzed using non-parametric tests.

The authors found that participants saw year-round availability, fruit preservation and food waste reduction as processing advantages. Locally sourced products were preferred to organic products. The perceived disadvantages to processing were additive usage, nutrient loss and packaging. For consumers, these disadvantages drove highly differentiated perceptions of industrial versus artisanal/homemade apple products. Processing conditions appeared to matter far more than production conditions (organic vs. conventional). In general, consumers weren't familiar with processing operations, awareness was greater for consumers of local and/or organic produce than conventional consumers.

There must be a societal transition toward healthier diets, and food technologies. Informed consumers, might be better equipped to make healthy, informed choices if the consumers are given quality information about food production and processing at different levels.

Research has shown that consumers view fresh organic fruit positively, but only few studies have looked at perceptions of processed fruit products and their familiarity with processing operations. Results of this study demonstrate that consumers could make better choices if the consumers are given quality information about fruit production and processing.

Well‐founded complaint has recently been made concerning the characters of the various forms of “candy,” or, as we should term them, “sweets,” that are manufactured in great quantities in the United States.

In a previous article we have called attention to the danger of eating tinned and bottled vegetables which have been coloured by the addition of salts of copper and we have urged upon the public that no such preparations should be purchased without an adequate guarantee that they are free from copper compounds. Copper poisoning, however, is not the only danger to which consumers of preserved foods are liable. Judging from the reports of cases of irritant poisoning which appear with somewhat alarming frequency in the daily press, and from the information which we have been at pains to obtain, there can be no question that the occurrence of a large number of these cases is to be attributed to the ingestion of tinned foods which has been improperly prepared or kept. It is not to be supposed that the numerous cases of illness which have been ascribed to the use of tinned foods were all cases of metallic poisoning brought about by the action of the contents of the tins upon the metal and solder of the latter. The evidence available does not show that a majority of the cases could be put down to this cause alone; but it must be admitted that the evidence is in most instances of an unsatisfactory and inconclusive character. It has become a somewhat too common custom to put forward the view that so‐called “ptomaine” poisoning is the cause of the mischief; and this upon very insufficient evidence. While there is no doubt that the presence in tinned goods of some poisonous products of decomposition or organic change very frequently gives rise to dangerous illness, so little is known of the chemical nature and of the physiological effects of “ptomaines” that to obtain conclusive evidence is in all cases most difficult, and in many, if not in most, quite impossible. A study of the subject leads to the conclusion that both ptomaine poisoning and metallic poisoning—also of an obscure kind—have, either separately or in conjunction, produced the effects from time to time reported. In view of the many outbreaks of illness, and especially, of course, of the deaths which have been attributed to the eating of bad tinned foods it is of the utmost importance that some more stringent control than that which can be said to exist at present should be exercised over the preparation and sale of tinned goods. In Holland some two or three years ago, in consequence partly of the fact that, after eating tinned food, about seventy soldiers were attacked by severe illness at the Dutch manœuvres, the attention of the Government was drawn to the matter by Drs. VAN HAMEL ROOS and HARMENS, who advocated the use of enamel for coating tins. It appears that an enamel of special manufacture is now extensively used in Holland by the manfacturers of the better qualities of tinned food, and that the use of such enamelled tins is insisted upon for naval and military stores. This is a course which might with great advantage be followed in this country. While absolute safety may not be attainable, adequate steps should be taken to prevent the use of damaged, inferior or improper materials, to enforce cleanliness, and to ensure the adoption of some better system of canning.

Viewing the last dying embers of 1984, the Orwel‐lian year of Big Brother and some of its not‐so‐far off the mark predictions, the unemployment which one cannot help feeling is more apparent than real, it is hardly surprising that the subject of Poverty or the so‐called Poverty arise. The real poverty of undernourished children, soup kitchens, children suffering at Christmas, hungry children ravenously consuming free school meals has not, even now, returned.

Maintaining an adequate nutritional state, important at all times, is never more so than during the dark days of Winter. The body reserves are then taxed in varying degrees of severity by sudden downward plunges of the thermometer, days when there is no sight of the sun, lashing rains and cold winds, ice, frost, snow, gales and blizzards. The body processes must be maintained against these onslaughts of nature — body temperatures, resistance against infections, a state of well‐being with all systems operating and an ability to “take it”. A sufficient and well balanced diet is vital to all this, most would say, the primarily significant factor. The National Food Surveys do not demonstrate any insufficiency in the national diet in terms of energy values, intake of vitamins, minerals and nutrients, but statistics can be fallacious amd misleading. NFS statistics are no indication of quality of food, its sufficiency for physiological purposes and to meet the economic stresses of the times. The intake of staple foods — bread, milk, butter, meat, &c., — have been slowly declining for years, as their prices rise higher and higher. If the Government had foreseen the massive unemployment problem, it is doubtful if they would have crippled the highly commendable School Meals Service. To have continued this — school milk, school dinners — even with the financial help it would have required would be seen as a “Supplementary Benefit” much better than the uncontrolled cash flow of social security. Child nutrition must be suffering. Stand outside a school at lunch‐time and watch the stream of children trailing along to the “Chippie” for a handfull of chip potatoes; even making a “meal” on an ice lollie.

Memories and musings of the long ago reveal revolutionary changes in the world's food trade and in particular, food sources and marketing in the United Kingdom. Earliest memories of the retail food trade are of many small shops; it used to be said that, given a good site, food would always sell well. There were multiples, but none of their stores differed from the pattern and some of the firms — Upton's, the International, were household names as they are now. Others, eg., the Maypole, and names that are lost to memory, have been absorbed in the many mergers of more recent times. Food production has changed even more dramatically; countries once major sources and massive exporters, have now become equally massive importers and completely new sources of food have developed. It all reflects the political changes, resulting from two World Wars, just as the British market reflects the shifts in world production.