View report page

68
food supervision
Butchers' shops.—There are 112 such premises in the Borough, 84 being devoted to the
sale of beef and mutton, and 28 to the sale of pork. The inspections of these premises
numbered 598, the majority being of the pork shops, as the discovery of disease in the other
forms of flesh food is a very rare incident. The system of inspection by request of the
occupiers of such shops was abandoned in the course of the year, as certain firms made use of
the advantages conferred by such system to shield themselves when food had been exposed
for sale without preliminary inspection.
Food purveyors' premises.—The number of such premises on the Registers at the close of
the year was 169, being 8 fewer than the total reported in each of the two preceding years,
and 13 fewer than that of 1903. Table 41 gives the numbers of the different classes of
premises, and of inspections thereof during the past year, together with a statement of the
sanitary defects found and remedied.

* These were systematically dealt with in 1902, leaving no structural defects unremedied.
Canned Goods.—The "meat scandals" which developed in America during the past year
led to some attention being given to the quality of canned goods on sale in the Borough.
Tins of various commodities were purchased and opened in the laboratoy and examined by
the Public Analyst and the Meat and Food Inspector. One tin of flesh food ("Chicken and
Veal Pate" ) was found to contain traces of sulphites—which fact, the Analyst reported,
indicated incipient decomposition at the time of canning. Sulphites were also found in one
tin each of lobster, apricots, and tomatoes. The remaining tins examined were free from
preservatives, and the contents appeared to be in a sound and wholesome condition. All the