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57
MEAT INSPECTION AT TILBURY.
The duties of Meat Inspection have been carried out by Food Inspector
Bailey, and Sanitary Inspector Rolfe, with Dr. Willoughby.
A boat arrives on six nights during the week from Ostend, and during the
season a number of pig carcasses are imported.
Belgium had neglected to secure the approval of the Local Government
Board to their system of inspection, and so the pig carcasses, and edible parts
of a pig, coming thence could not be treated as Foreign Meat of Class III. as
coming in under Official Certificate, but had to be detained by His Majesty's
Customs, and subjected to detailed inspection by the Officers of the Authority.
The vessels usually arrive about 11 p.m., and the work of inspection took
several hours, under not exactly comfortable conditions—on a cold night,
being carried out in a draughty shed—and it meant that the Inspector had to
stay at the local hotel after finishing work, as there were no means of getting
away from Tilbury until early the next morning.
The importers were also inconvenienced, as, in order to place the meat on
the London Market early in the morning, it was necessary that it should be
despatched from Tilbury by a certain train, and this could not always be done.
Strong representations were made by the importers in this country, as also
by the exporters in Belgium, to the Belgium Government, and ultimately the
Official Certificate of that country received the approval of the Local
Government Board, and due notice was published in the "London Gazette"
of September 24th, 1909.
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF FOODSTUFFS.
On the 2nd November, the s.s. "Potaro,'' of Belfast, from Campana, arrived
in the Royal Victoria Dock. Amongst the cargo were nine casks of ox-tongues
in brine and eight casks of ox-cheeks in brine.
Samples ot the brine were submitted to Dr. F. L. Teed for analysis, and
he reported as follows:—
"Ox-tongues—Formaldehyde, 0.004 per cent. (equals 1 part in 2,500)
(the 40 per cent, solution of formaldehyde), 0.0l per cent.
"Ox-cheeks—Formaldehyde, 0.064 per cent. (equals 1 part in 15,625),
expressed as commercial formalin (40 per cent. solution of formaldehyde);
formalin, 0.016 per cent."