Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Poplar, Metropolitan Borough]
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were found stacked in the open yard. On closer examination the
heads of several of the filled barrels appeared to be badly blown.
A large store-room in the yard was filled with tins, jars, and cases
of tins of bad fruit pulp of various kinds and a quantity of bad
jam.
On ascertaining the yard was in the occupation of the Eureka
Preserving Company, Maverton Road, a visit was immediately made
to those premises, and it was at once evident that jam-making on
a fairly large scale was carried on. In the preserving room there
were seven steam preserving pans fitted and attached to a large
vertical boiler, though no steam was on at the time, power driven
pulping and slicing machines and all the necessary apparatus for
the purpose of jam-making and colouring matter and foreign seeds
to give the finished jam a semblance of genuineness. One of the
coppers contained about 1½ cwt. of strawberry pulp, and one about
l½ cwt. of blackberry pulp in a highly fermenting condition. There
were also in the preserving room near the coppers several open
barrels containing black-currant, strawberry, raspberry and plum
pulps, all highly fermenting and totally unfit for food, and embedded
in the top of the strawberry pulp was a copper dipper entirely
covered with thick verdigris. There were also some large tins of
apricot pulp (badly blown), ten ½ cwt. jars of various pulps, and
about 3 dozen jars of orange pulp of a very doubtful quality.
Adjacent to and communicating with the boiling room was a
covered store containing a large number of cases of tins, bottles
and jars of fruit pulp, the greater proportion of them being unsound.
In the open yard were stored 66 4 or 5 cwt. barrels of
pulp and 8 doz. 20-lb. jars of orange pulp.
Two or three girls were at the time engaged in the packing room
tying up and labelling pots and jars of jam, of which there was a