View report page

53
Meat Marking.—Under Part III of the Regulations, the
Minister of Health is empowered to authorize a local authority to
adopt a distinctive mark for placing on carcases which have been
inspected at the time of slaughter and found to be free from disease
and fit for human consumption, and to approve the mark so adopted.
Before giving authority the Minister will require to be satisfied that
the local authority have an adequate and competent staff of
inspectors, and that the criteria laid down in Memorandum 62
(foods) are being adopted.
Certain difficulties would arise in putting this part of the
regulacions in force, and as in the past most of the meat slaughtered
in this district is made up into sausages and similar articles of food, |
the Council did not deem it necessary to apply for a disrinctive
mark.
I do not think an application by the Council would be refused.
The details of the meat inspection carried out here are given on a
subsequenc page, and compared with most districts, the inspection
is a stringent one.
This aspect of the question is an important one, and the value
of meat marking will become more and more appreciated by the
public. At the presenc time, it was not possible for the purchaser
of a joint to distinguish between inspected and uninspected meat,
and it is hoped that the demand for inspected meat will become
more insistent and frequent by the public. Some retailers objected
to " marking " because their customers thought meat so distin-
guished was colonial produce, but in the present state of meat
inspection in this country, the position might well be reversed,
and the importer demand that his reasonably well-inspected product
should be protected against the substitution of inferior and um'n-
spected home produce.
In last year's report it was stated that arrangements had been
made for the inspection of all carcases slaughtered in the district.
The vast majority of the carcases are slaughtered in one slaughter-
house, and the following particulars of the results are given in the
following Tables:—