View report page

54
It may be humiliating to have to confess it, but we are impotent in the matter,
and we have to depend absolutely on the knowledge and integrity of the
officials supervising the canning of goods abroad.
The meat that is used for canning purposes in our district is bought in the
Central Meat Market where it is thoroughly examined and is afterwards under
our supervision. If diseased meat is used it will be due to the laxity of our
own officials, as well as the officers of the City Corporation who are responsible
for the supervision of the Central Meat Market.
To sum up this part of the question:—
(1) Decomposed food will as a rule in time cause bulging of the tins.
(2) Experienced men only can detect the presence of putrefaction of
the contents, when the gas is not sufficient to cause bulging.
(3) Blown tins are apparent to all, and when opened, the contents are
offensive.
(4) Tin and on rare occasions lead may be present in such quantities
as to be injurious to health, though the food itself may appear to be quite
wholesome. Their presence can only be detected by chemical examination.
(5) Diseased meat may have been used. No practical examination
will detect the presence of such diseased meat, once it has been tinned, for
a bacteriological examination of a few tins out of each consignment would
not be a guarantee of the condition of the contents of the remainder.
2.—Butchers' Meat.
There are 150 to 160 butchers' shops in the Borough; at 112 there is a
mincing machine on the premises. There are 10 licensed slaughter-houses.
It is most difficult to keep the latter under strict supervision. The
butchers slaughter whenever they like, and at all times of the day and night.
It is therefore impossible thoroughly to inspect the carcases before they are
removed for sale. The only real remedy is to have public Abattoirs, where
slaughtering would take place during stated hours, and where a skilled official
could inspect all carcases. In would be an improvement on the present
method if regulations could be made fixing the hours for slaughtering in the
various slaughterhouses, and not allowing any of the meat to be delivered until
it had been inspected. The most convenient times for slaughtering could be
left to the butchers themselves. The same remark applies to the mincing of
meat or sausage making. Part of the meat may be tainted, but when it is