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It will be observed that the average for both fat and non-fatty solids varies very little
from year to year, the actual average for the three years being 3 57 and 8.97, so that the
general milk supply of the Borough must be regarded as not unsatisfactory.
Minced Meat—Two of the samples of minced meat contained sulphite preservative,
the amount found being 123 and 82 parts per million of sulphur di-oxide respectively. No
preservative is permitted to be used in minced meat and they were therefore certified to be
adulterated.
Sardines.—During the year considerable attention has been paid to the question of
sardines as a number of samples from different parts of the kingdom were found to contain
an excessive quantity of lead. In some cases the amount of this metal found was as much as
40 parts per million, and most of these were sardines imported from Portugal. As this is a
dangerous quantity, owing to the fact that lead is a cumulative poison, enquiries were set on
foot to ascertain the cause of the presence of lead and to find whether its distribution was
general throughout the industry, or confined to sardines imported from particular countries.
As is well known sardines and similar fish packed in cans under the name of sardines
are submitted to a process of cooking before the actual canning takes place. The process of
cooking consists of grilling the fish for a short time over a fire, and it was found that in some
cases the grill on which the fish were laid was composed of an alloy containing a large
proportion of lead and that in the process to which they were submitted, the fish were liable
to absorb considerable quantities of this metal.
This was particularly the case with fish prepared and canned in Portugal, and steps
were taken either to destroy all the consignments in which the excess was found, or return
them to the country of origin.