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Disposal of meat and offal unfit for human consumption
Circular 21/53 of the Ministry of Food gives details of the revised
conditions under which condemned meat and offal belonging to the
Ministry are sold by public auction at monthly intervals. The buyer
can only dispose of, or sell condemned meat, etc., if it has been
processed, boiled in accordance with stated requirements, or sterilised,
and may only sell to a processor, to a retailer for sale by him for animal
feeding, or to owners of zoos, menageries, fur farms and fisheries and
maggot breeders for use in such businesses and not for resale.
Before delivery the seller is required to notify the medical officer of
health of the names and addresses of any consignees in his district and
such meat and material has to be stained green before delivery to the
buyer. Slaughterhouse managers have been instructed by the Minister
to notify local authorities of the names and addresses of buyers of meat
and offal which are unfit for human consumption.
Keeping of pigs
Complaints were received with regard to smells arising from the
keeping of pigs in the yard attached to a butcher's shop in Sydenham.
It was found that there was a contravention of section 119, subsection 4
of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936 in that the pigs were kept within
40 yards of a street or public place. The owner was asked to dispose
of the pigs within a reasonable time and thereafter not to replace them.
The pigs were removed and the styes demolished.
A further contravention of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936
was discovered at Elstree Hill, where four pigs were being kept within
the proscribed distance from a street. A report was submitted to the
health committee in November, when it was decided that the requirements
of section 119 must be enforced but that in view of the fact that
there was no immediate likelihood of a nuisance being caused to
nearby residents, the owner of the pigs should be allowed six months
in which to dispose of them or to move them to a position which would
be more than 40 yards from a street.
Basement bakehouses
Under the Factories Act, 1937, section 54, a basement bakehouse
means a bakehouse any baking room of which is so situated that the
surface of the floor is more than three feet below the surface of the
footway of the adjoining street, or of the ground nearest to the room.
A basement bakehouse must not be used as a bakehouse unless (a) it
was so used at the date of the passing of the Factories Act (30 July, 1937)
and (b) certificates of suitability have been issued by the Council. Any
basement bakehouse which is not used as a bakehouse for a period
exceeding 12 months must not be so used again.
District councils were required in the year beginning at the date
of the commencement of the Factories Act of 1937 (namely 1938) and
in every fifth successive year, to carry out an examination of basement
bakehouses in respect of which certificates of suitability had been