BEWARE OF PRESERVATIVES

Ontario Department of Agriculture

[Welland Tribune, 6 May 1898]

In building up the dairy industry of Ontario two things have been taught and urged, namely, purity and high quality of products and economy of production. Whatever sets back this great industry may have met in the past few years can be traced to a neglect of one or the other of these important points. The cheese industry of Ontario is now fairly well established, and the annual production of a large amount of well made, whole-milk cheese of uniform quality has given Canada a controlling influence in the British cheese market. Our creamery industry is now rapidly developing, and it is of vital importance that the strictest attention be paid to the turning out in an economical manner of butter of uniformly high quality, pure and unadulterated. This industry, will, if properly conducted, assume very large proportions, since the average consumption of butter is much greater than that of cheese, and the British imports of butter greatly exceed those of cheese. In the British market our butter meets in competition similar goods from Ireland. Demark, France, and United States, Australia and Argentina. Denmark has attained a chief place by studying the requirements of the market, and now produces nearly all of her creamery export butter from pasteurized milk or cream with the use of special ferments. In some of the countries exporting to Great Britain –Australia in particular- it has become a practice to use some kind of “preservative” in butter-making. Sometimes this is added to butter as a salt; sometimes it is added to the milk. These preservatives are sold under various names, such names as preservative, preservatine, preservitas, being favorites. They are nearly all mixtures of boracic acid. The increasing use of these preservatives has alarmed the British consumer, and most radical measures are now proposed to exclude all butter in which traces of these preservatives are found. The British public has become alarmed, the press is actively discussing the matter, and public officials are now on the lookout for butter so adulterated. The butter producers of Ontario must make no mistake. The use of any of these preservatives is dangerous to the dairy interests of this country. Everything possible should be done to discourage the use of such substances, and the press should as far as possible prevent the advertising of them in this country. Ontario has a reputation for producing pure dairy goods of high quality. Thar reputation must be maintained, and every person interested in the dairy business of Ontario should assist in preventing these “preservatives” from getting a foothold in this province. “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” We have a reputation now for making pure butter and cheese. Help to maintain that reputation. Do not advocate preservatives. Do not advertise preservatives. Do not use preservatives.

JOHN DRYDEN
Minister of agriculture for Ontario
Toronto, April 15^th, 1898