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123
With particular reference to the use of "additives" in livestock,
the Expert Committee on Meat Hygiene of the F.A.O./
W.H.O. has drawn attention to the following: —
Antibiotics and chemotherapeutics used for the treatment
of diseased animals prior to slaughter.
Antibiotics, coccidiostatics, tranquillisers and anthelminthics
used as feed additives.
The use of tranquillisers and preventive chemotherapeutics
as anti-shipping fever agents during transport.
The use of oestrogenous hormones in food animals.
The use of herbicides in plant protection.
How to detect these additives and, furthermore, how to determine
what tolerances man has for these chemicals is going to be
difficult, for this varies with each nation and geographical region.
However, in the cases quoted, the Committee has formulated its
proposals with regard to the methods most likely to lead to the
elimination of possible ill-effects from the consumption by humans
of meat and other animal products which may contain residues
of these substances. It is obvious that some time must elapse
before any standards are agreed and codes of judgment laid down
to cover such situations.
At the moment these problems are mainly those of the industry
at large but they indicate how complex, technical and arduous
the question of food inspection is likely to become, especially in
a riparian authority's area. Moreover, as if the question of
the use of drugs and chemicals was hardly enough with which
to cope, the problem of "food borne" infections adds to the complications,
viz., bacterial contamination such as salmonellosis;
viral and rickettsial infections such as infectious hepatitis; amoebic
dysentery resulting from protozoal pollution and the zooparasitical
complaints of ascariasis and trichinosis.
Meat inspection can no longer be considered as an isolated
routine occurring haphazardly, perhaps only once, at the slaughter
house. Meat is a perishable commodity liable to damage, mishandling,
contamination and deliberate illegal treatment during
transportation and storage and inspection is necessary at all these
stages.
So far, there has been no means of checking that carcases in
butchers' shops have been inspected, although the majority have
been so examined. Under the new Meat Regulations this is being
remedied and arrangements are made for the inspection of every
animal slaughtered for sale for human consumption and for them
to be marked accordingly.