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are threatening. Long-lived fission products such as strontium 90,
iodine 131, caesium 137, etc., residues from nuclear processes, will
be held in the soil for many years to come and will eventually find
their way into the nation's food.
It follows, therefore, that examination of such foodstuffs is, and
will get progressively more complicated and, with these more subtle
forms of contamination, analysts are confronted with situations
requiring new techniques and methods of analysis.
In addition to the usual "food-borne" infections, be they bacterial,
viral, rickettsial, protozoal, or zooparasitical, the food inspector's
difficulties are increasing as a result of this rapid scientific progress
which is revealing hazards, new or previously unrecognised, which
demand increased attention and more selective sampling.
To-day, the intricacies of misleading labelling, the very real
dangers of infection and contamination are such that it requires
the closest of team work between the Food Inspector, the Analyst,
the Bacteriologist and, not least, the Food Trader himself to keep
them within reasonable bounds.
New Legislation
The Slaughterhouses (Meat Inspection Grant) (Revocation)
Regulations, 1967.
These Regulations with effect from 31st March, 1967, revoked
the Slaughterhouses (Meat Inspection Grant) Regulations, 1958,
which provided for the payment of Exchequer grants to local
authorities in respect of meat inspected in excess of the quantity
required for local consumption. They were superseded by the
Meat Inspection Regulations, 1963, which empower local authori
ties to charge for the inspection of all meat slaughtered for human
consumption in their respective districts.
The Slaughter of Poultry Act, 1967.
Circular 46/67 issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries
and Food on 7th August, 1967, refers to the above Act which will
come into force on a day to be appointed by the Minister.
The Act provides that turkeys and domestic poultry intended
for sale for human consumption shall be slaughtered instantaneously by decapitation, dislocation of the neck, or other
approved method, or stunned and rendered instantaneously insensible until death supervenes. Jewish and Muslim methods of
slaughter are exempted from these provisions.
When the Act becomes operative, premises where stunning is
carried out must be registered with the local authority. This
provision will not be brought into effect for some months to allow