View report page

143
Approximately half the food consumed in the United Kingdom
is imported and some 60% of all meat imports into the country
are received at the London Wharves. To a riparian authority such
as Greenwich, the resultant food inspection is complicated and
often arduous, for examination of food at wharves and in cold
stores usually requires a quick decision in order that no delay should
be occasioned to the importer or his distributors. Such a situation
is aggravated by the time taken for the results of bacteriological
and chemical examinations to become known and the fact that
storage space at the docks is expensive. However, with mutual
respect and co-operation over a number of years a reasonable,
workable system has evolved.
Despite all the attention paid to imported products, some
infected food does slip through as witness the Aberdeen typhoid
outbreak. To avoid just such an occurrence it has recently been
proposed that all imported meat, frozen or canned, should be
subjected to irradiation by 'cobalt 60'. Experiments have shown
that this treatment is quick, effective, does not alter the taste or
appearance of the meat and carries no risk of induced radio-activity.
If proof were needed, this is an example of how technical and
scientific food inspection and examination is becoming. Scientific
progress is increasing the difficulties of the food inspector for it is
revealing hazards, new or previously unrecognised, which demand
increased sampling as a temporary measure until the problems can
be dealt with at source.
Much attention is now being directed towards producing
standards of composition and nomenclature for various commodities
in relation to their contents, especially with regard to meat
products. High pressure sales promofion in the advertising field
has resulted in attractively labelled foods which, on analysis, are
found not to be what they are purported to be. Accurate labelling
is one of the aims of all who are directly involved in consumer
protection.
To-day, the intricacies of misleading labelling, the very real
dangers of infection and contamination are such that it requires
the closest team work between the Medical Officer of Health, the
Food Inspector, the Analyst, the Bacteriologist and, not least, the
Food Trader himself to reduce it to a minimum.
Legislation.—Of the new legislation introduced in the current
year concerning food, the following regulations were considered
the more important:—
The Meat (Treatment) Regulations, 1964.—Operative from
23rd January, 1964, these Regulations, made under Sections 4 and