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54
was being contaminated or the Regulations otherwise infringed. The
Committee adopted the suggestion of the Conference that a notice
should be displayed in shops urging the public not to handle meat
before purchase. These Notices, which are printed upon washable
ivorine, and are bought by the traders from the Council, are in the
following terms :—
BOROUGH OF HAMPSTEAD.
Meat Regulations, 1924.
For the sake of cleanliness, and in the interest of public health,
customers are requested not to handle any meat before purchase.
FRANK E. SCRASE, f.r.c.s. (Eng.),
l.k.c.p. (Lond.), d.p.h (Lond.),
Medical Officer of Health.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Haverstock Hill,
Hampstead, N.W. 3.
The general public are urged to co-operate with the traders in maintaining
a clean meat supply.
The Meat Regulations are not easy to enforce, and it seems to me
doubtful if they can be enforced if one cannot win the co-operation of
the butchers themselves. Time must be given for such a desirable
object as a cleaner and better handling of meat.
Already it is apparent that certain butchers are endeavouring to
carry out the Regulations, and arc making considerable structural
alterations in their shops, and I have small doubt but that with tact
and continual encouragement the whole trade will eventually see the
benefit of the Regulations.
In this Borough there are no meat stalls, so that question does not
arise. It is a matter of particular importance that the Meat Regulations
should be kept constantly in view, and their adoption and
enforcement gradually achieved, as it is obvious that these Regulations
must be extended to other foods which are equally exposed to contamination.
Fish, pastry, and bread are all in the same category, and
food of this description is frequently sold and delivered under circumstances
and conditions wherein they must become contaminated.
Another class of goods to which this principle must also extend are the
sticky, sugary, sweet things of the confectioner, and the grocer, such as
figs, dates, &c.