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105
Food poisoning or suspected food poisoning was
made a notifiable condition under Section 7 of the
London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1932.
There are, of course, innumerable occasions on which
illness may possibly be due to the eating of some
kind of food, and it is difficult to determine either
the precise food in question or whether the illness had
been caused by the immoderate quantity taken, the
injudicious mixing of incompatible articles or the actual
bad condition of the food, quite apart from the question
of whether the patient is suffering from a toxic
condition. There are also of course, cases where persons
have an idiosyncrasy against certain foods, i.e., even
small quantities may set up gastric, intestinal or constitutional
symptoms. The Section specifies actual or
suspected food poisoning as the notifiable condition, and
it must depend for its usefulness upon the extent to
which doctors confine its operation to definite cases of
poisoning, with substantial suspicion of contaminated
food as the cause of the illness.
The subject is dealt with more fully in the preceding
section dealing with the Control of Disease.
SALE OF FOOD ORDER, 1921.
Part iii of this Order was continued in force during
the year under the Expiring Laws Continuance Act,
1931. Imported meat and eggs are required to be
labelled as such.