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Corporate commitment to environmental assessment with its kit of forecasting tools is expected to grow rapidly in the years ahead. This growth will be partly due to corporate willingness to confront turbulent environmental changes explicitly within a formal planning process.

The body design of the lorry was then modified to be of the “cupboard” type, with the refrigerant in the storage chamber for the goods. A revolutionary step was taken by the introduction of solid carbon dioxide as refrigerant. This material is made by supercooling liquid carbon dioxide by its own evaporation until a “snow” is formed and then compressing this “snow” to a specific gravity of 1·5. The solid block so formed has a greater refrigerating effect per pound than ice, and a much lower temperature (=108° F.). It evaporates without passing through the liquid stage and on account of this property it has been called “Dry‐Ice” in America and “Dri‐Kold” in England. It is clean in use, but relatively expensive (about 2d. a lb.), and its low working temperature is a disadvantage, as it makes difficulties in controlling the temperature of the refrigerated space. Its use has eliminated all corrosion and enabled the insulation design and body building design to be simplified and made more efficient. The presence of carbon dioxide gas in the refrigerated space is often a disadvantage; when this occurs the solid carbon dioxide has to be held in a separate container and the heat from the refrigerated chamber led to it by conductor plates, or by a secondary refrigerant, or by a moving air stream. The high price of solid carbon dioxide and the difficulty of controlling the temperature with it have led many engineers to seek other solutions of the problem of refrigerating vehicles. The use of a small compressor outfit, which has its own motive power (either internal combustion engine or electric motor) or is driven from the axle of the vehicle, has been developed and has a following. The small size of these units causes inefficiency and uneconomical running, and the possibility of breakdown, with consequent loss of refrigerating power and spoiling of the load, is a nightmare to the operator. Most recently of all a return has been made to the eutectic tank method. This method suffered from the necessity of removing the tanks on the return of the empty vehicle and replacing them by a fresh set which had been freezing in a special equipment. This took time and two sets of tanks were needed besides the freezing equipment. Now the tanks are fixed in the vehicle; they have internal pipes which, when the vehicle is docked, are connected to a main refrigerating system, and flooded with liquid ammonia. This ammonia is evaporated by the compressor and freezes the eutectic solution which in turn refrigerates the vehicle when it is on the road. The system has the advantage of a stable, readily‐controlled temperature, absence of all mess, and the reliability and cheap running costs of a fixed large capacity refrigerating plant. The amount of eutectic used is such as to provide about 36 hours refrigeration on the road, so that no breakdown can result in the loss of the load. Mr. Milner Gray, in a section of his lecture in 1939 to the Royal Society of Arts on “The History and Development of Packaging” has already pointed out how social and economic changes in recent years have affected the distribution of foodstuffs. Smaller families and residences, and the increased pace of living have made popular the packaged food unit, which is easily purchased, handled and stored. The lecture dealt with the subject from the point of view of the designer of artistic packages, but the food manufacturer is obviously concerned with the effect of the package itself on the food it contains. It is a matter of commercial necessity for the large food factories of to‐day (with sales areas covering the whole of the United Kingdom) to ensure that their products shall reach all their customers in a satisfactory condition. The period which elapses between the goods leaving the factory and their reaching the customer varies, but the package must be such that the quality of the foodstuff is maintained for the desired period or “life” of the goods. A packaged foodstuff may be made or marred by its wrappings. Generally speaking, the main causes of spoiling in manufactured foodstuffs are mechanical damage, temperature effects, insect infestation, putrefaction, moisture‐exchange (dependent upon weather conditions), flavour contamination, and chemical changes such as development of rancidity and metallic contamination. The package can be constructed to give reasonable protection against all these factors, and a few illustrations will be given of how this is done. A package must necessarily be strong enough to prevent physical distortion of the product wrapped, but the question of functional designing of packages is not germane to the present lecture: the general principles of the strength of bulk containers was explained in lectures to the Royal Society of Arts by Mr. Chaplin and his colleagues from the Container Testing Laboratory at Princes Risborough. Prevention of insect infestation from outside sources is, of course, simply a matter of proper closure and choice of materials. Prevention of putrefaction, or spoiling by micro‐organisms is one of the chief purposes of a food wrapping, and bound up with the question of prevention of access to the food of putrefying organisms is that of prevention of infection of the food by organisms which might not themselves spoil it but which are harmful to human beings if eaten with the food. Medical Officers of Health have been concerned with the latter aspect for many years, and the present public demand for milk in individual containers, such as cartons or bottles, and for the large quantities of bread sold in sealed wrappers is no doubt due largely to their education of public opinion. Wrapped bread is usually sold in a sealed waxed paper packing, which, in addition to keeping the bread clean, also delays drying of crumb through moisture loss. The baker must, however, guard against the actual spoiling of his bread through wrapping. If the bread is packed too warm, mould growth in or on it may be promoted by the high moisture content of the atmosphere inside the waxed wrapper which is impermeable to moisture vapour. This impermeability has other effects, which will be considered later. Various proposals have been made to prevent mould growth on foods inside wrappers by impregnating the latter with compounds which volatilise slowly and inhibit the development of moulds and micro‐organisms. Compounds of the type of chloramine T (liberating chlorine in a damp atmosphere) have been patented for treating bread wrappers, while iodine, diphenyl and many other compounds have been proposed for treating wrappers to be placed round fruit. Some years ago a wrapper marketed to prevent meat spoiling was found to depend on the liberation of formaldehyde. Wrappers of these types cannot, however, be used on account of the danger of infringement of the Foods and Drugs Regulations if the foodstuff should absorb any of the volatile compound. The loss or gain of moisture by manufactured foodstuffs are two very important causes of food spoiling. Sponge cakes, under ordinary conditions of storage, soon become dry and unpalatable, while boiled sweets and toffee can be kept in good condition for a considerable time by the use of a suitably selected wrapper. Different types of wrappers allow the passage of moisture vapour at different rates, but for practical purposes they can be considered as either permeable or practically impermeable to moisture vapour. The rate of passage of moisture vapour through a wrapper has not necessarily any connection with the “airtightness.”

It will take some time before the value of the recent Production Exhibition held in London can be fully assessed, but there is little doubt that this new departure in exhibitions has left its mark.

The late Harold Laski in Liberty and the Modern State (p. 168) tells us that in “our own day it would not be an unfair description of education to define it as the art which teaches men to be deceived by the printed word.” Extend the aphorism to the spoken word. Sobald man spricht beginnt man schon zu irren. And so to deceive! After Hitler the Germans should remember their own maxim again! Broadcasting, television, preaching, lecturing, and political parrotry mislead even more than print. Pleasant voice, winning manner, a sparkle in the eye, a flash in the phrase, mask many a glib bunkum‐stuffer. The flying air‐borne sentence is less easy to interrogate than the ink‐bound paragraph. Does not Dr. Johnson somewhere growl that he could see quicker than he could hear?

As the result of the increased postal rates and costs of production caused by the war, the Subscription Rates and Sales Prices of the BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL will be raised on June 1st next. The increased prices will be as understated:—

Learning objects strive for reusability in e‐Learning to reduce cost and allow personalization of content. We show why learning objects require adapted Information Retrieval systems. In the spirit of the Semantic Web, we discuss the semantic description, discovery, and composition of learning objects. As part of our project, we tag learning objects with both objective (e.g., title, date, and author) and subjective (e.g., quality and relevance) metadata. We present the RACOFI (Rule‐Applying Collaborative Filtering) Composer prototype with its novel combination of two libraries and their associated engines: a collaborative filtering system and an inference rule system. We developed RACOFI to generate context‐aware recommendation lists. Context is handled by multidimensional predictions produced from a database‐driven scalable collaborative filtering algorithm. Rules are then applied to the predictions to customize the recommendations according to user profiles. The RACOFI Composer architecture has been developed into the contextaware music portal inDiscover.

The outbreak of typhoid fever which had been traced to a “carrier” of the fever germs may be given as a reason for the following note on the regulations relating to the manufacture of ice cream. This brief re‐statement of the regulations will serve to indicate the nature of the control exercised by the health authorities over a widely spread trade. It need hardly be pointed out that cream in the usually accepted sense of that term or its substitute containing a certain proportion of milk powder or skim milk is peculiarly liable to act as an agent in the dissemination of certain types of disease. “New regulations, the “Ice Cream (Heat Treatment) Regulations, 1946,” at present in draft, but operative from May 1st, 1947, deal with the sterilisation of the raw material and the retail sale in the finished and frozen state. Registration of premises, inspection by the local authority, combined with the goodwill of the trade, are obvious safeguards. The term “ice cream” possibly suggests to the average consumer a frozen mixture of cream—as that word is usually understood to mean—flavoured with the fresh juice or fresh‐fruit pulp of the name fruit. Such a mixture, if made from wholesome materials under hygienic conditions, would be a good, palatable luxury, and from the nature of the case seasonal. Most of us at some December midnight have had something called strawberry ice. The name stands, but the composition is rather a matter for speculation by the uninitiated. The term “cream” has been for many years applied to substances which though wholesome in themselves are not cream—vegetable fats, milk powder and the like—but they form the basis, so to speak, either in whole or in part of ice cream. There is in fact no official standard to define what is meant by ice cream, and the definition which we have ventured to offer must obviously be extended to apply to a large number of substances that do not of necessity consist either partly, still less wholly, of cream or of any substance whose origin is to be found in fruit of any kind. Ice cream, in fact, is a substance whose composition it seems may vary within wide and undefined limits. Thus the Ice Cream (Prohibition of the Manufacture and Sales) Order, 1942, says “‘Ice cream’ includes water ices.” The Ice Cream Transport Order (No. 305, March 22nd, 1945), prohibiting the export of ice cream to Great Britain from Northern Ireland, says: “Ice cream includes water ices and any article, whether frozen or chilled, and under whatever description it is sold, which is sufficiently similar to ice cream as to constitute a substitute for ice cream.” The statements just quoted seem to imply that ice cream may be made of almost anything as long as price, temperature and taste suit the requirements of the consumer. However, our concern is less to do with its composition as with regulations that have to do with the hygienic requirements of its manufacture. It may be pointed out that as things stand at present registration relates to premises and not to persons employed therein. Anyone can be employed in an ice cream factory, as he can be employed in any other kind of food factory. The matter of engaging him is left to the heads of the factory. They, as commonsense business people, with the interests of their business at heart, are not likely to engage anyone who is at sight obviously unfitted for the job. On the other hand, habits and health, especially the latter, become of peculiar importance when such a substance as ice cream is the object of manufacture. To make regulations as to the registration and inspection of premises, is one thing. It is not too easy to enforce such regulations. In the case of persons it is more delicate and difficult. If the offence be of habit it can be readily detected and dealt with. If of health, it becomes a matter for the Medical Officer of Health and his professional colleagues. Under Section 14 of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, which came into force on October 1st, 1939, all premises in which ice cream is sold, manufactured, or stored must be registered with the local authority. The purpose for which registration is sought—sale, storage, or manufacture—must be stated, and also the nature of other business, if any, that may be carried on on the premises. If the premises appear to the local authority to be unsuitable, registration may be refused, or, if previously granted, may be cancelled. Notice of the refusal to register, or to cancel registration, must be served on the applicant or tenant of the premises by the local authority, giving reasons for the act, and the applicant or tenant may then, if he wishes, request the local authority to show cause, for the reasons given by them, why they should refuse to register or wish to cancel registration.” It need hardly be pointed out that the sole reason for registration is to enable the local authority to satisfy themselves that hygienic conditions are complied with, such as cleanliness, light, ventilation, adequate water supply and sanitation in general. Though the conditions may be complied with there is still the more serious danger that may arise from “milk‐borne diseases,” a danger that is admittedly peculiarly acute when such a substance as ice cream is the subject of manufacture or storage. The Medical Officer of Health must therefore be informed by the manufacturer if any milk‐borne disease has occurred among persons living or working in or about the premises. We may hazard the guess that it may not always be easy for the manufacturer to obtain such certain knowledge. “Milk‐borne disease” means enteric fever (including typhoid or paratyphoid), dysentery, diphtheria, scarlet fever, acute inflammation of the throat, gastro‐enteritis, and undulant fever—a formidable list—and any other disease that may be declared milk‐borne by the Minister of Health. With the best will in the world on the part of everybody concerned the enforcement of this Order, and there can be obviously no half measures in doing so, presents difficulties that can only be adequately appreciated and discussed by medical practitioners who are conversant with the nature of the disease in general and with the particular conditions that led to its occurrence. Apart, however, from its purely medical aspect, and if we consider the manufacturer we find that if he has done his duty in this respect he may have his business brought to a standstill, or at least a part or even the whole of his stock destroyed. The Medical Officer of Health is very rightly empowered, in the interests of public health, which override all other considerations, to prohibit the use for human consumption of any substance likely to convey milk‐borne disease and to order either its removal or its destruction. Compensation can be paid to the manufacturer if the Medical Officer of Health, after further enquiry, be satisfied that the suspected substance is not injurious. His notice for destruction or removal must then be withdrawn. On the other hand, compensation will not be paid if the suspected substance was actually injurious, or was made on the premises while the order of the Medical Officer was still in force. If a person feels aggrieved by the decision of the local authority he may appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction. Any change in the occupation of registered premises must be notified to the local authority by the ingoing tenant if he intends to use such premises for the purpose for which they were registered. If at the commencement of the Act of 1938 a local Act was in force dealing with the conditions for registration of premises it may remain in force unless the Minister, at the request of the local authority, declares the 1938 Act, 14 (1), to be in place of it. The use of unregistered premises renders the offender liable to a fine not exceeding £20, and for a second offence a maximum penalty of £100 and for three months imprisonment. Every street seller of ice cream must have his name and address on the barrow or container. It may be added that hotels, clubs and inns are exempt from registration, and theatres, music halls and the like are also exempt unless they manufacture ice cream on the premises. The Order of 1942 prohibited the manufacture of ice cream in catering establishments or in institutions, meaning by these terms premises previously authorised to do so by licence from the Ministry of Food or by a Food Control Committee. Institutions or households were exempt from this Order if the ice cream manufactured was to be consumed on the premises. This Order was rescinded by an Order of November 16th, 1944, and manufacture was resumed from that date. This was certainly not due to any marked increase in the milk supply. The trade demand was and is at least in part met by a permitted substitute.

One of the commonest excuses put forward in defence of the practice of treating milk, butter, meat, and other foods with ‘preservative’ drugs no longer possesses even the appearance of validity. Several of the large railway companies are adding refrigerator vans in considerable numbers to their rolling‐stock, and this fact should make it no longer possible for defendants to plead that the necessity of sending food‐products a long distance by rail involves the necessity of mixing preservative chemicals with them. Although the excuse referred to will not bear examination, it is a very specious one, and in those instances where evidence has not been brought forward to refute it, it has produced some effect on the minds of magistrates and others. It cannot be too often pointed out that such substances as boracic acid, salicylic acid, and formaldehyde are dangerous drugs, and that their unacknowledged presence in articles of food constitutes a serious danger to the public. Such substances are not foods, and are not natural constituents of any food. In most instances they are purposely introduced into food‐products to avoid the expense attending the proper production, preparation, and distribution of the food, or to conceal the inferior quality of an article by masking the signs of commencing decomposition or incipient putrefaction, and thus to enable a dishonest producer or vendor to palm off as fresh and wholesome an article which may be not only of bad quality, but absolutely dangerous to the consumer. The use of these substances, in any quantity whatsoever, and the sale of articles containing them, without the fullest and clearest disclosure of their presence, is as gross and as dangerous a form of adulteration as any which has at any time been exposed. In no single instance can it be shown that these drugs are, to quote the words of the Act of 1875, matters or ingredients “required for the preparation or production of a food as an article of commerce,” nor, of course, can it be contended that such substances are “extraneous matters with which the food is unavoidably mixed during the process of collection or preparation.” In reality, even under our inadequate and unsatisfactory adulteration laws, through which the proverbial coach‐and‐four can be so easily driven in so many directions, there ought to be no loophole of escape for the deliberate and dishonest drugger of foods. While the presence of preservative chemicals in any quantity whatever in articles of food constitutes adulteration, wherever the quantity is sufficient to allow the production of the specific “preservative” effect of the substance added, that fact alone is enough to make the food so drugged a food which must be regarded as injurious to the health of the consumer—in view of the inhibitory effect which, by its very nature, the antiseptic must produce on the process of digestion. To our knowledge the food market in this country is flooded with all sorts of inferior food‐products which are rarely dealt with under the Adulteration Acts, and which are loaded with so‐called preservatives. There will be no adequate protection for the public against the consumption of this injurious rubbish until the consumer sees the advantage of insisting upon an authoritative and permanent guarantee of quality with his goods, and until manufacturers of the better class at length find it to be a necessity for their continued prosperity that they should supply, apart entirely from their own statements, an independent and powerful guarantee of this kind.