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An “official certificate” is a label, mark, stamp, or other voucher affixed to oversea
meat or its containing package by a competent authority in the country of origin and recognised
by the Minister of Health as evidence of freedom from disease and careful dressing,
preparation and packing. The recognition of an official certificate is effected by notice
published by the Minister of Health in the London Gazette.
Several new forms of official certificate are already recognised by the Minister and
copies are in the hands of your officers.
Meat prohibited from importation comprises scrap meat (meat not identifiable with
a definite part of a carcase), meat from which pleura or peritoneum is stripped, a carcase
not having several specified lymphatic glands in position, and a part of a carcase not having
the specified glands appropriate to the part in position. The glands, pleura and peritoneum
frequently give good indication of disease, if present, as of its absence.
Conditionally admissible meats—that is, meat which must have “official certification”
for importation into this country—is
(1) A severed part of the carcase of an animal with the specified glands proper to
the part in position.
(2) Lard, dripping, etc.
(3) All edible parts of an animal other than the above (e.g., heart and liver). Sausage
casings and meat which has been prepared for human consumption before importation—
e.g., sausage and tinned food—are excepted. A part of the carcase of a pig which has
been salted, cured, pickled, dried or smoked, or prepared as bacon, is unconditionally
admitted as before the amending regulations.
In the former regulations these embargoes on and conditions to importation applied
mainly to pigs ; they now apply to the chief food animals, cattle, sheep and pigs. The
official certificate is largely a guarantee of efficient examination of the live animal and its
carcase in the exporting country. It should be an assurance of the possibility of examining
that examination, as also the meat itself, in this country, but is not of necessity so.
Nothing in these regulations prevents the exercise of the powers of examination already
possessed in the case of imported food, as of food in general, and the solid extension of the
guarantee with regard to freedom from disease in imported meat conveyed by them will
be recognised, especially having regard to the large trade in imported meat at Smithfield
Market through the Port of London.
PUBLIC HEALTH (MEAT) REGULATIONS, 1924.
Constant supervision shows that the object of the Regulations has not yet been obtained
to as great a degree as is desirable. The need for cleanliness in the handling and transport
of meat is not always realised by the persons concerned.
The conditions at Smithfield with regard to meat vehicles continues to improve, but
a number of cautions have been necessary with regard to the use of dirty lining cloths,
upon which the meat is placed.
This year the use of metal-lined meat vehicles has increased among market carriers.
One of the aluminium alloys has proved very satisfactory, especially where the sheets of
metal are placed on a hard background. The great advancement which has been made by
some carriers sets off the cases of carelessness.
It has not been necessary to institute proceedings against any of the market porters,
although several cautionary letters have had to be sent. The butchers who engage a market
porter are responsible for him with regard to the Regulations while he is in their employ—
a point not generally recognised.
Many butchers now employ the regular market carriers to convey their meat, and some
have vehicles which are a good practical advertisement, but considerable supervision is
necessary where private cars are used, and where “once-a-week” washings are still considered
sufficient.
The use of private cars for transport is rapidly increasing, and one feels that this method
of conveyance is thoroughly bad practice. Of course, there is no objection if reasonable
precaution protects the meat from contamination.