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69
Chinese Pood Syndrome,
Towards the end of the year two persons who had dined at a Chinese
restaurant reported that within half an hour they were suffering with
itching, swollen faces and piaffed up eyes with exudation. The soy sauce
was analysed and was reported as containing a normal amount of monosodium
glutamate.
Any substance, if consumed in sufficient quantities or under certain
circumstances, may produce effects on the body. Monosodium glutamate,
which is a normal constituent of protein, if taken in excessive quantity,
can produce the Chinese Food Syndrome.
Meat Depots and Imported Food.
There are no slaughterhouses in the borough and the retail shops
receive their meat from Smithfield and from the local wholesale depots.
Some home killed meat comes from the modern abattoir at Guildford.
There are eight wholesale meat depots in the borough, the main group
being situated in The Bittoms, with two in Wood Street and one in Cambridge
Road. The meat handled includes fresh meat from within the British Isles
and imported meat from Europe, South America and Australasia.
During the year numerous visits were paid to the depots and 277 containers
of food, mainly meat, were received in Kingston from various ports
without having been inspected by Port Health Inspectors. The majority
came from Ireland but some from the continent.
Date Stamping of Food.
During the year the Food Standards Committee of the Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food invited comments on the subject of date
stamping of food in connection with a review which they were undertaking.
Whilst at first sight it would seem to be a simple procedure to
mark foods with a clear date of manufacture or the date by which the food
should be used or "the shelf life", there are many difficulties or such a
practice would have been adopted long ago. These difficulties include the
bulk packaging of food-stuffs at a time of surplus, the variety of
factors influencing the keeping quality of foods, and the whole question
of legal responsibility for the sale of food not of the quality expected
by the purchaser.
The Council decided that observations be submitted in respect of
cases of sale of unsound food which had occurred in the borough and requested
that the following points be considered:-