London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

City of London 1910

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London, City of ]

This page requires JavaScript

114
CONVEYANCE OF MEAT.
All who have witnessed the unseemly manner in which our meat is conveyed
from the markets to local butchers must be impressed by the obvious necessity
for the prohibition of the present methods. Improvements certainly have been
effected during the past few years, but even now carcases are piled into carts,
many of which are quite unfit for the purpose of conveying food stuffs of any
description, they are afforded no protection whatever from the dust and dirt
of the public thoroughfares, and it is, moreover, no infrequent occurrence for
the drivers to so overload their vehicles that there is no room left for them
to sit except upon the carcases. Having regard to the condition of the
clothing of many of these men, this in itself is a most objectionable practice,
and one that can hardly fail to have a deleterious effect upon the meat, but
at the present time the Corporation have no legal power that will enable them
to cope with the question.
In the absence of such statutory powers the education of the traders
concerned as to the importance of strict cleanliness in the transport of meat is
a matter of some moment, and the Cold Storage and Ice Association is to be
commended upon passing the following resolution at the Eleventh Anniversary
Meeting held at Manchester on the 27th April, 1910:—
"This Association desires to urge all local authorities to adopt and
"enforce proper methods for the protection during transit of meat,
"carcases, &c., intended for human food."
I have on several occasions brought this matter before the Sanitary
Committee, and the following recommendation, submitted on the 26th November,
1907, was endorsed by the Court of Common Council, and duly presented
to the Local Government Board:—
"That the Local Government Board be asked, in considering the issue
"of Regulations under the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) Act,
"1907, to include one for prohibiting the conveyance of meat through
"the public thoroughfares except in properly constructed carts or other
"suitable vehicles in which the contents are properly covered and not
"exposed to view."
Similar views were entertained by 15 of the Metropolitan Borough Councils,
and were presented by the London County Council to the Local Government
Board, but up to the present time no practical step has resulted. In June of
this year, the Local Government Board were again requested by the Corporation
to take action in the direction indicated above.
Meat traders themselves are fully alive to the necessity for the efficient
protection of meat during transit, and on the 9th December, 1907, I discussed