NOT THAT THERE IS anything sacred about 'cream'; a few
years ago some bumptious official who wanted to stop the manufacturer of a celebrated sherry from using the term, on the grounds that the liquid in the bottle did not contain the stipu- lated minimum of dairy fats, was very properly put in his place by ridicule. Nor is there anything the matter with the vegetable-fat ices that the public has become used to and will doubtless long continue to enjoy. But where a product can be made from cream it should surely have the exclusive use of the term; if it is right to insist that cream buns should be made only from real cream, then the same rule should hold for cream The only justification that the manufac- turers of vegetable-fat ices can claim is colloquial usage. But this is a shaky argument, because the colloquial usage has been allowed to gain a hold only because of successive governments' indo- lence. For years, the milk interests were told by the Government—in effect—'You have a good case, but don't ask for legislation to enforce it just yet, there's no need, this can all be settled without it.' Now, they are being told, 'You have a good case, but don't ask for legislation to en- force it because people have got used to ice-cream
with no cream in it.' True; but it is a deplorably shabby argument.
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