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78
Inspection of Food.
The City Corporation has provided, in their Islington Market, new slaughter-houses for the use
of butchers, and Dr. Collingridge recommends that opportunity should be given for the marking of meat
which has been therein inspected. It is much to be desired that this opportunity should be given and
that butchers will avail themselves of it. At the present time the purchaser of meat in London has
no means of knowing whether it has been subjected to inspection. The amount of diseased and unwholesome
meat seized or surrendered in the City markets was 1,283 tons 16 cwt.; of fish, 1,236 tons
12 cwt. in Billingsgate Market, and 7 tons 1 cwt. in the Central Markets; of different articles of food
removed from the City wharves, 171 tons. In Finsbury, in which district are situated the so-called
"extra-Corporation markets," 101 tons 14 cwt. of various articles of food, mostly meat, were seized or
surrendered. In Islington the amount of food seized or surrendered was 5 tons 17 cwt., of which 2 tons
comprised tinned foods. A considerable amount of food stuffs was seized or surrendered in Stepney. In
this borough is situated the Spitalfields Market, where it was the practice of salesmen to offer fruit and
vegetables for sale "subject to being sorted.'' The borough council called the attention of the salesmen
to the provisions of the Public Health Act relating to unsound food, and invited them to assist
the borough council by seeing that no unsound fruit or vegetables are disposed of for the purpose of
human consumption. This action of the borough council, Dr. Thomas reports, had a good effect, a
larger quantity of unsound fruit being surrendered than before. The methods of disposal of unsound
food in this borough were revised during the year, canned meats being taken to Duke Shore Wharf and
cut open and the contents thrown into a barge containing road sweepings and then taken to Sittingbourne
and sold for manure. Canned foods of a liquid nature were spiked so that the contents of
the tins ran out and condemned carcases of meat were burnt. There was improvement during the year
of the inspection of meat killed in private slaughter-houses, and Dr. Thomas states that of 55 cows
slaughtered in one slaughter-house, 37 were affected with localized tuberculosis and in two the udders
were diseased. In Paddington, 4,505 lbs. of meat, fish, vegetables, etc., were condemned, and in addition
4,480 lbs. of vegetables and fruit were destroyed at the request of the Great Western Railway Company.
In Southwark 53 tons of food stuffs were destroyed and 15 tons of damaged flour originally intended
for human consumption were permitted to be used only for the manufacture of food for cattle.
In Bethnal Green 2 tons 12 cwt. of food stuffs were seized or surrendered. In Bermondsey 127 tons
of food stuffs were surrendered and various articles seized. In Westminster nearly 30 tons of food
stuffs were surrendered and various articles seized, including 35 gallons of milk. In Shorediteh various
articles of food were surrendered or seized, among those surrendered being 25,500 tongues in
putrefactive condition, received from South America. The tongues were preserved in fluid
containing boric acid which prevented the putrefactive odour being recognized until they had been
cooked. The weight of articles of food seized or surrendered was 3 tons 16 cwt. in Hackney, and
1 ton 9 cwt. in Stoke Newington, and seizures and surrenders of quantities of food, the total weight of
which is not shown, occurred in Battersea, Poplar, Lambeth, Greenwich, Fulham, Deptford,
St. Pancras, Woolwich, Holborn, Wandsworth, St. Marylebone, Hampstead, Lewisham and Chelsea.
The number of convictions in the several districts was, in the City, 4 ; Finsbury, 5 ; Islington, 11 ;
Stepney, 3 ; Paddington, 4 ; Southwark, 2 ; Poplar, 2 ; Westminster, 4 ; Shorediteh, 2 ; Battersea, 4 ;
Bethnal Green, 10 ; St. Pancras, 1; Holborn, 1 ; Wandsworth, 2 ; St. Marylebone, 3 ; Stoke Newington, 1.
Regulations under the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) Act, 1907, made by the Local
Government Board were issued during the year. The Regulations related to (a) nnsound food and
(b) foreign meat. The first series empowers a medical officer of health or other person appointed for
the purpose to examine articles of food which have been landed in his district, and provides for the taking
of samples of food and for the temporary detention of consignments pending examination of the samples.
An article of food which in the opinion of the medical officer of health is unsound, or unwholesome, or
unfit for human consumption, may be seized and application made to a Justice for an order of condemnation,
or, by notice to the importer, the officer may require that until it has been examined the article