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All the butchers' shops and meat stalls in the Borough are regularly inspected
to ensure compliance with the regulations; during the year 679 such inspections
were made.
It is regretted that in a few cases (seven) the undesirable practice continues
of exposing meat for sale outside the shop on stallboards projecting beyond the
building line. If all butchers selling from shops were required to discontinue the
practice of exposing meat in front of their shops it is difficult to see that any
hardship would be caused. It is noteworthy that during the hot weather, in the
best shops, very little meat is displayed; it is in the cold storage plant, but no one
contends that the sale of meat is thereby prejudiced. Any attempt to convert the
benches into imitation stalls is not in accordance with hygienic ideals. The
existence of stalls in market streets in the form allowed by the Regulations is
countenanced because it is thought their existence enables meat to be sold at
competitive prices and so tends to bring down the prices generally at which meat
is sold to the public.
In all eases in the Borough, where meat is exposed for sale outside shops or on
stalls, suitable screens are provided and used for the protection of meat, as far
as practicable, from dust, mud and other contaminating substances.
The practice of handling meat by customers before purchase has generally
ceased in the Borough. In the shops where " pieces " are sold, a notice is
exhibited urging customers not to handle meat before purchase, and in most of
these shops forks are provided to enable the pieces to be turned over by purchasers
without direct handling. As a result of their observations and enquiries the
Inspectors report that the forks so provided are generally used.
It is satisfactory to record that it has not been necessary in any case to
serve notice for breach of the Regulations.
In the early part of the year 1927. a conference on the Public Health
(Meat) Regulations was held at the Royal Sanitary Institute. Attention was
drawn to the lack of uniformity in carrying out the Regulations in different
administrative areas, and consequent dissatisfaction in the meat trade. Reference
was also made to the different experiences by local authorities in their efforts
to obtain glass fronts to butchers' shops; there was, however, evidence that
butchers who had studied the question, from the economical standpoint, kept
their meat behind closed glass windows and so prevented the meat losing its