Jam Traffic
By LESLIE ADRIAN
But there's still a deal of jiggery-pokery with the sweet stuff. No longer is it mainly colour- less, unidentifiable fruit pulp, bleached and pre- served with sulphur dioxide and refreshed with cochineal and a modicum of the real thing. No, these days it is the real thing (from 35 per cent to 65 per cent of it, at least) tarted up with coal- tar dyes, some of which have been condemned, though not outlawed, by the Food Standards Committee. The significant point for me was that, out of thirty-seven jams, only thirteen contained no colouring matter, and six of these were foreign. Indeed, none of the foreign jams had any arti- ficial colouring added. This is mainly because we are one of the few countries that permit the use of chemical dyes until they are found to be dangerous, whereas more sensible governments permit only those that are known to be safe.
Another general truth thrown up by the strata' berry jam analysis was the remarkably random labelling, pricing and packaging of the confusing variety of -brands, some of which bear more than one name. For instance,.Harrods Claremont (3s. 2d. per lb. and a joint best buy with Baxters and Spring's Conserve) sells outside -London as Walker's and is 4d. per lb. cheaper. Eisenhart' Large Scarlet and Little Scarlet ,turn up as Fort- num and Mason jams, at the same price, and yet Elsenham also sell strawberry jam made will' curacao for only 4s. 9d., or 6d. more than their Little Scarlet, which itself is Is. dearer than their Large Scarlet. Did I say confusing?
The posh jams tend to present themselves in odd-shaped vessels 'with only twelve ounces side, but sometimes (like Hartley's New Jam) looking vaguely like a pound jar. One brave foreign jam made from wild strawberries, and authenticated by Which? (it even had bits of fern leaf in it and you can hardly get wilder than that), weighs in at seventeen ounces,, costs 3s., comes from Yugoslavia, tasted better than Whichis home-made 'control' jam, but also contained more than the regulation amount of sulphur dioxide (Vitaminka, 120 parts in a million: limit '100).
It was bracketed with two other foreigners (Globus from Bulgaria, Is. 7d. per lb., and Rolimpex from Poland, Is. 9d.) as good-value runners-up. One of the `health food' brands, Eustace Miles, seemed to fail all the tests (less than the statutory minimum of fruit-35 Per cent as against 38 per cent; `overcooked' and tasted of `molasses'). While the otherwise ex' emplary Marks and Sparks was badly let doWll, by its red jam at 2s. 2d. a jar. It was doctored with 'Red 2G and Tartrazine. Not so bad, how' ever, as Tesco's Golden Ring, gaudy with Red 20, Red 10B and Sunset yellow FCF. Ugh! None of these has actually been blackballed by the Food Standards Committee—in other words, they have not been found to be harmful to human beings. But neither had six other coal-tar colourings in common use when last July the committee voted them unfit: .for human consumption and recommended their immediate withdrawal-4 piece of advice which our Government has been too busy to act upon, though it did find time to do the Big Brother act when a Labour MI". Mrs. Joyce Butler, tried to get a modest food' labelling Bill through the House. This would not have outlawed any of the questionable additives. but it would have forced the food manufacture( to declare them in unequivocal, chemical terms on the label.
Mrs. Butler is trying to get round the par' liamentary block, temporarily at least, by appeal' ing direct to-the manufacturers. In an open letter, she has asked them to co-operate by .voluntarily declaring on their labels the names of any cheoll- cal additives. She promises to give all possible publicity to the firms who respond to this appol' This column will do the same. In the meantime, the colour-conscious can turn to this month's Which?
Universal Health Clubs is an' outstanding el(- ample of what hard selling can accomplish'
Nowadays, apart from the foot-in-the-door- ' fellow, we are beseiged by .mail and telephone, .111(.1 the Postmaster-General, who wants more and more of our money, cannot protect us, he says. The health clubs, the dance studios and ,Ole insurance companies are great users of his telephone service.
Miss Elizabeth Gundrey, so long a champion Of the harassed consumer, has now issued her uide to direct-sales trickery. A Foot in the Door tiller, 20s.) contains some amusing anecdotes about outsmarting the telephone pests and what 0 do, legally, with unwanted parcels. But her
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chapters are arranged to deal with the whole hard-sell game product by product, from the pi,eudo-student selling magazine subscriptions to the knitting-machine peddlers who have spoiled the market for the honest operators.
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