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102
In 1958 the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health
was made aware of the seriousness with which the Public Health
Committee viewed importations of this nature. Resulting from this
approach a meeting which was tentatively arranged for the latter
end of 1958 was finally held on the 9th September of the current year
at the Ministry between Council and Ministry representatives.
On behalf of the Council, attention was drawn to the very
great concern felt with regard to the dangers of salmonella and
paratyphoid infection arising from the importation of egg products
from China and other foreign sources. It was pointed out that
Greenwich was particularly involved in that large quantities of such
products were being imported through wharves which were the
subject of inspection by the Council's Food Officers and. further,
that the sampling procedure at present in use did not appear to be
a satisfactory safeguard in that from the results obtained it was
clear that some of the unsampled products were likely to be infected
to a greater or lesser degree. From the information available to
the Council it seemed that the best solution would be to require the
pasteurisation of egg products in the country of origin under conditions
approved by the Ministry.
In reply the Ministry officials emphasised that they fully agreed
that the position was not entirely satisfactory and that they would
certainly like to see some better method of control. The whole
problem was under very active consideration and there was every
hope that a satisfactory answer would be found to the considerable
difficulties involved. Egg products were, however, a very valuable
food for which there was no real substitute and the possible loss
involved had to be weighed against the danger of infection.
With regard to the sampling procedure at present followed by
local authorities, the Ministry officials expressed the opinion that it
served a most valuable purpose. Not only did it give some protection
in regard to individual consignments, but perhaps of equal
importance it had kept exporters alive to the need to improve
standards and had in fact led to the acceptance by them of important
safeguards. It had also resulted in the Ministry advising
importers to refuse supplies from certain sources.
In conclusion, the Council representatives were given an
assurance that the Ministry were making every effort to achieve a
satisfactory solution of the problem at the earliest possible date.
(l) Dried Hen Egg Albumen— All landings of this product
during the year have continued to be submitted to the heat treatment
process recommended by the National Albumen Advisory
Committee set up by the Ministry of Health. This process is
undertaken at the premises of Messrs. J. Palmer (Deptford) Ltd.,
Prince Street, S.E.8.