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The Public Health (Meat) Regulations, 1924.
These Regulations, which came into operation on the 1st April, 1925, were
issued in consequence of the wishes of a large part of the public; the handling of
meat in wholesale markets, the conditions of its transport, the absence of
protection in shops and on stalls from dust and flies had been the subject of
widespread comment for a considerable time before the issue of the Regulations.
There is no doubt that the requirement of extreme cleanliness in connection
with food generally is very wise. Obviously it is difficult to persuade cooks,
domestic servants and wives of the labouring class to carry out the extreme
degree of cleanliness required in the home if they are able to point out that before
the food reaches them it has already undergone contamination. Yet to increasing
cleanliness as regards food in the home must we ascribe the striking decrease in
typhoid fever and infantile diarrhœa.
The Holborn Council have always supported any measures tending towards
increased cleanliness in connection with food. Recently their support was given
to the protection of bread from contamination, an article of food which should be
protected, but is not so dangerous when contaminated as meat, the surface of
which provides abundant food for the nutrition of germs and consequently favours
their multiplication.
It has been urged that no harm results from the contamination of meat
because it is always washed and then cooked before consumption.
But it is rash to state that meat is always washed before cooking. Even
if it were, the washing is not of the order of washing the hands and obviously
could not be depended upon for a moment to remove bacterial contamination.
The protection often considered to be afforded by cooking is being proved by
research to be fallacious.
Recent research on food poisoning has shown that some of the toxins or poisons
produced by the germs are not destroyed even when the germs are killed; in fact
their power of doing harm is actually increased by heating to high temperature.
The present form of a large number of butchers' shops is one which is far
from suitable for the hygienic sale of meat. One of the difficulties in connection
with the Regulations is the matter of glass shop fronts. Obviously the installation
of glazed sashed windows will tend to prevent contamination of the meat by dust
or flies and their use is to be advised coincident with suitable arrangements for
ventilation. Difficulty in persuading butchers to instal them will be met when
the butcher's business is not sufficiently prosperous, also when the term of the
lease is too short to compensate for the outlay.