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Meanwhile enquiries were carried out as to the possibility of the illness being due to the
luncheon meal served in the canteen on 7th September. Two hundred and ten meals were
served to the members, of whom 67 subsequently complained of abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and
five complained of vomiting also.
There were a number of items on the menu including mixed grill, roast lamb, grilled gammon,
fried haddock, blackberry tart, coconut meringue, bread and butter pudding and custard.
There was no residue of the meal available for examination, and amongst 67 persons questioned
there was no single item that had been eaten by all of them. Moreover four persons alleged that
they had had no lunch and had taken only tea and coffee.
Six persons volunteered to submit samples of fasces. From four of these specimens heatresistant
Clostridium welchii were recovered, but none yielded intestinal pathogens.
The cause of the outbreak remains a mystery. It may have been due to Clostridium welchii
in some article of food, but in view of the fact that four sufferers had only had tea or coffee it
appears possible that there may have been a temporary contamination of the water supply resulting
from the work on the service main to the canteen.
Food Inspection.
There are no slaughterhouses in the City of London. The Metropolitan Cattle Market in
Islington is owned and administered by the Corporation of the City but the Medical Officer of
Health of the City is not responsible for meat inspection at the abattoir. The meat arriving at
Smithfield Meat Market has presumably been inspected at the time of slaughter in this country
or abroad. Evidence of disease which has escaped notice at the primary inspection is nevertheless
found; in some cases it has been overlooked, in others it has only become apparent when the
carcase is cut up. Condemnations of meat at Smithfield are to a considerable extent due not to
disease but to deterioration during transport, decomposition, bone-taint, brine-staining, etc.
The total amount of meat delivered at Smithfield Market was 386,046 tons of which 470 tonswere
found to be diseased or unsound and were voluntarily surrendered. At Leadenhall Market
and in City shops 7 tons and at Cold Stores 6 tons were condemned.
Of other foodstuffs in Markets and Shops 5 tons, and at Riverside Wharves 194 tons 6 cwts.,
were condemned.
The total amount of foodstuffs found by your Inspectors to be unfit for human consumption
was therefore 682 tons. This is 109 tons more than in the previous year, but this is explained
partly by larger deliveries of food and partly by a fire at Custom House Quay in which large
quantities of food were damaged by fire and water.
In only one instance were legal proceedings instituted and this was in relation to 61 wild
rabbits delivered at Smithfield Market which were infected with myxomatosis. It appeared that
whoever paunched the rabbits must have observed that they were diseased even if he did not
know the signs of myxomatosis, so it was decided to prosecute the consignor. In the proceedings
the consignor explained that he collected rabbits from a number of farms and delivered them
direct to the market and it was not possible for him to say from which source the diseased rabbits
were collected. The case was therefore dismissed on payment of 8 guineas costs.
Food Hygiene and the Hygiene of Catering Establishments.
I have asked your two inspectors, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Flynn, who devote their whole
time to the hygiene of catering establishments in the City and both of whom are enthusiasts,
but at the same time are essentially practical in their approach to the many problems with which
they are confronted, to express their opinions on the progress achieved in the last 10 years, and
they report as follows:—
"It will be recalled that the first comprehensive measure covering the field of hygiene in
food premises was the Food & Drugs Act, 1938, which unfortunately did not come into operation
until after the outbreak of war, and was therefore, to a greater or less degree, put into 'cold
storage' until the end of hostilities. However, during this time rationing came into being, and
while no one welcomed such an event, it had perhaps one good feature. The Ministry of Food
realized that to hand out food permits for new catering premises was likely to result in food
being prepared in some very undesirable premises, and referred each application, as far as the
City was concerned, to the Department of the Medical Officer of Health, asking whether or not
the premises in question were satisfactory.
Permits were not issued until the Medical Officer of Health was satisfied that as high a
standard had been achieved in the premises as the circumstances allowed. This liaison lasted
until the issue of catering licences was finally discontinued.
It was impracticable, however, at that time, to effect any substantial amelioration of
unsatisfactory structural conditions in the old dilapidated and badly designed restaurants and
cafés which existed in various parts of the City. Even after the war, because of the acute
shortage of labour and materials and the restriction of building activity by means of licences, it
was for a long time difficult to secure major improvements in catering premises.
Outbreaks of food poisoning were made notifiable by the 1938 Act, and consequent upon
this and the fact that communal feeding had become established as part of our way of life, it
became evident that food poisoning was probably on the increase and was giving rise to serious
concern among health authorities. As a result the Ministry of Food set up a working party in
1949 to investigate the many facets of this problem.