British Food Journal Volume 67 Issue 10 1965

For upwards of a century the Mother of Parliaments has pioneered social and particularly public health legislation all over the world. The parliamentary democracies planted by Mother England in forty new Englands beyond the seas followed our lead. We have grown accustomed to this and it is now something of a shock to find this is no longer completely true. Except perhaps in housing, we do not lead in this field, but seem to be following. It was always said of the law “You cannot legislate in advance of public opinion!” In the control of food purity and quality, public opinion cannot be the arbiter and for it, there has to be substituted research, technology and scientific knowledge. During recent years, this country has tended to follow the U.S.A. in food control legislation; at least that part of it which deals with chemical treatment and food additives. This casts no reflection on the advances made in Britain, but these are neither adequate nor fast enough to keep abreast of the food technological explosion. The vast research programmes in the U.S.A., are better able to do this; their complaint is not of the shortage of money, only of brains. In the taxed‐to‐death, economic wilderness that is now Britain, we have the brains, but no money. It is hardly surprising that those with brains should seek in foreign fields the rewards and appreciation to which they are entitled.