London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Deptford 1914

Annual report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford

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145
The premises were cleansed and limewashed every quarter as
required by the bylaws.
Number of slaughter houses in the borough 2
Number of inspections for the year 61
The Nutritional Value of Frozen Meat.
The domestic economies are of so much importance at the present
time that the value of chilled and frozen meat is worthy of mention.
Many experiments have been made to show that frozen meat properly
thawed presents very little change in the tissue. As regards the nutritive
qualities of such meat, various observers have studied the subject both
at home and abroad. Parkes and Kenwood, say refrigeration is by far
the best, as the freshness and nutritive value of the meat remain unaltered.
Richardson, in America, as a result of many chemical analyses,
concluded—after the examination of 12 samples of fresh meat and 13
of frozen meat—that "a general inspection of the tables shows very
little difference between the analyses of fresh and frozen samples; the
variations in the individual fresh samples are hardly greater than would
be expected in material of this kind, into whose composition so many
factors enter, and the differences between maxima and minima in fresh
and frozen samples are of the same order; in general the variations do
not tend definitely in one direction in the frozen samples, the ammoniacal
nitrogen, the coagulable nitrogen, and the albuminous nitrogen figures
do not show a progressive tendency to increase or decrease." Rideal,
in this country, after investigating the digestibility of frozen meat, states
that "the amount of digestion in these experiments is, therefore, very
nearly the same for each kind of meat (fresh and frozen), and is proportional
to the amount of matter capable of digestion as measured by the
quantity of nitrogen existing in each kind." Martel, in France, stated,
"when meat is preserved long enongh at temperature below 0°C.
(freezing point) the alterations which still take place are not of such a
kind as to lessen its nutritive value."
In process of freezing, the fluid constituents of the meat expand,
causing a rupture of the cells of the animal's body, with a result that
the haemaglobin permeates the tissues, giving the meat a diffuse red or
pink colour. On being thawed, the surface of the carcase becomes
moist, and drops of liquid fall to the ground. This moisture is probably
partly due to fluids which exude from the tissues, but must also be
accounted for by the condensation of aqueous vapour of the surrounding
warmer air upon the cold surfaces of the meat. The liquids, exuding
from frozen meat on thawing, are of less nutritive value than the meat