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1933]
76

The fall in number may be accounted for by the fact that for part of the year
the work was done by the District Inspectors, and is not included in this report,
and also that during Mr. Haydock's term of office a number of stalls grouped
together in sufficient numbers to form a market has been entered as one visit to a
market.
During the year 58 warning letters were sent to various shopkeepers and stallholders
who omitted to mark certain fresh fruits with the country of origin. Ten
Meat Traders were also warned for allowing meat to become contaminated in contravention
of the Public Health Meat Regulations. It is interesting to note that
on no occasion has a shopkeeper or stallholder committed an offence after being
previously warned.
Offensive Trades include 2 tripe dressers, 4 gut scrapers, 4 fur skin
dressers, and Knacker's Yard, which received a total of 73 visits. There was no
cause for complaint in the conduct of the business carried on in them.
PROSECUTIONS FOR EXPOSING FOR SALE UNSOUND FOOD.
It would appear that butcher meat brought to London is on occasion not
always efficiently inspected after slaughter. We had occasion to warn a firm of
butchers regarding a diseased pig's head previously, and upon a second occasion
for a similar offence a prosecution was taken. The defendants appeared and
pleaded guilty, stating that at the time they were not aware of the condition of the
meat in question and had not observed it. The Bench considered the answer of
the defendants not satisfactory and fined them £10 10s. 0d., and £5 5s. Od. costs.
For some time past we have viewed with some concern the conduct of a trader
who brought meat for sale in Islington from Pewsey Rural District. We had the
active co-operation of the local Sanitary Inspector. The slaughterhouse at
Pewsey has within a short distance of it also a knacker's yard, where diseased
meat is dealt with. A well-founded suspicion attached to a certain trader that
meat from the knacker's yard, which he bought as cat's meat and animal food,
could be, and perhaps was, disposed of by him for human consumption. For a
considerable time with the help of the Sanitary Inspector of Pewsey, an endeavour
was made to trace the ultimate disposal of this trader's meat. In August information
was received that a quantity of meat was being conveyed by this particular