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14
Food.
Since the passing of the Food & Drugs Act, 1938, a registered
medical practitioner must notify cases he suspects of suffering from
food poisoning. There were 4 cases notified during 1941. Of these
cases, 3 were on investigation found to be probably due to the eating
of cooked meats, the symptoms being mild and recovery taking
place within 48 hours. In the other case, the illness was of longer
duration and occurred as a result of eating a meal in a factory
canteen. Several persons reported to the nurse at the factory as
being unwell, and attributed their symptoms to partaking of the
meal in the canteen. By the time the doctor reported the case and
our investigations were started, the stock from which some gravy
was made had been thrown away, although samples of the oxtails
which had been the 'plat de jour' were examined bacteriologically
and the report was as follows:—
Specimen appeared normal in colour and had no bad odour.
Cultures: non-lactose fermenting coliforms grown which proved
negative on agglutination with any of the salmonella anti-sera.
Also enterococci found, but these were found to be non-faecal.
Animal feeding was carried out on rats, animals showed no
sign of illness. Specimen of the faeces of the patient were also
examined but showed no pathogenic organism.
As frequently happens in this type of food poisoning, scientific
investigation fails to find the cause, but one can frequently suspect
certain items of food found to have been eaten by all, as the cause
of the trouble.
Acting on the information received from a nearby Health
Department that certain people resident in that area were suffering
from food poisoning as a result of eating food in a canteen of a
factory in this Borough, I visited the factory and found that about
.50 persons had been temporarily upset, one for as long as 14 days,
by consuming food in this canteen. The common factor was found
to be salt beef, but again there was none left for examination. At
the same premises later in the year, a further outbreak of sickness
occurred as a result of persons eating some curried meat. I had
specimens from the personnel of the staff canteen examined, in all
of which no pathogenic organisms were found. Certain advice was
given to the manager in regard to hygiene and the storing of food,
so as to prevent the advent of mice.
The Sanitary Inspectors have given a large percentage of their
time to dealing with unsound food, or food damaged by enemy
action. All food found to be unfit for human consumption is