London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Shoreditch 1962
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]
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40.
FOOD ADMINISTRATION (Contd.)
Food Complaints (Contde)
| Complaint | Result of Action Taken |
|---|---|
| Foreign body in loaf of bread. | Discovered to be part of a bus ticket. Strong warning letter sent to Bakery Company. |
| Suspected apple slices. | Three people complained of having diarrhoea after eating apple slices purchased from bakers shop. Bakery visited and found to be maintained in satisfactory condition. Samples of ingredients submitted for examination# Nothing abnormal discovered. |
1 <4
Cold Storage.
During March 1962 a Cold Storage Company became operative in the
Borough, the first of its kind, receiving foreign carcase meat," cartoned
jointed meat, offal, poultry and other foreign foods by road transport from
the ports.
The liaison between these ports and the Food and Drugs Section assures
that notification is received of the arrival of all consignments. Inspections
are carried out and where necessary percentage examinations.
The contents of sealed refrigerated containers from Yugoslavia via
Harwich are received into cold storage chambers. During the examination of
these consignments of jointed pork nothing abnormal has been discovered, the
quality and packaging is always very good.
Forward notice is received from port authorities of any imported food
product destined for the cold store which is thought to require further
attention. One such Uruguayan consignment of 580 quarters of beef and 900
sides of veal contaminated by mould was given 100% examination and classified
according to the evidence of mould into either manufacturing or animal
feeding quality and dealt with accordingly.
Prepacking Mussels.
Investigations into the source from whence a quantity of mussel shells,
dumped on waste ground, could have come, revealed certain information which
justified further inquiries.
It was discovered that as a result of remarks passed by a Billingsgate
Fish Market porter to the effect that "there was money in it" and that he
could "find a buyer", a scrap metal dealer had purchased two bags of mussels,
a quantity of jars and caps, and had started up in the business of prepacking
mussels in his junk yard and had disposed of the shells on the adjacent waste
ground.