View report page

46
UNSOUND FOOD.
Table XXI.
This Table has been amplified and improved by the addition of a column
showing the approximate weight of food stuffs seized and destroyed.
In the case of most of the articles, the weight given is the actual weight.
By this it will be seen that the total quantity of food stuffs seized and
destroyed during the year amounted to 164,062 original packages, and 16,410
loose articles, a total weight of about 573 tons.
To this may be added some 2,289 tons of grain, making a grand total of
2,862 tons of unsound food stuffs seized and dealt with by your Inspectors.
With regard to the damaged grain, your Inspectors perform a very useful
duty, inasmuch as this material is checked on arrival, and it has not the chance
of being carried away and ground into inferior flour, but for such portions as
are not absolutely decomposed, there is a ready means of disposal for the
feeding of cattle and poultry, and under satisfactory restrictions and guarantees
this is permitted.
The total weight of fresh or frozen meat seized and destroyed is nearly
120 tons. Included in this amount is 3,229 carcases of mutton. There
were also 63 tons of bacon and hams, 14 tons of fish, 149 tons of fresh and
25 tons of preserved fruit, 41 tons of tea, 21 tons of cocoa, 14 tons of condensed
milk, 11 tons prepared foods, and 7 tons fat foods, such as butter, cheese, &c.,
and similar quantities of other articles.
The record is a very satisfactory one, and gives a better idea of the
enormous bulk of goods dealt with by your officers, than does perhaps
the mere number of packages or of articles.
Of course, the quantity of foodstuffs destroyed forms only a small
percentage of the actual quantity examined. Speaking generally the condition
of foodstuffs landed in the Port of London is excellent.
In the beginning of the year I called attention to a statement which had
been made in a report on the inspection of food by Riparian Sanitary
Authorities, by the London County Council, in which it appeared that a
wrong impression was held as to the method of inspection adopted by the
Port Sanitary Authority.
The statement made was that seizures properly so called were rarely ever
made, but that the Inspector was merely called in to certify that unsound food
was not fit for human consumption.
As a matter of fact the "calling in" of an inspector is by no means
frequent, and a record is kept of all cases where goods are surrendered