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51
Cooked Meats.
The Deputy Chief Public Health Inspector prepared a paper on
this subject to be read at a meeting held at Walthamstow of the
Northern Home Counties Centre of the Public Health Inspectors'
Association. The paper will be published in due course, but the
author, Mr. Hughes, has agreed to the inclusion in this Report of
his summary and conclusions, which are as follows :—
"A Proposed Code of Practice for the Handling and Sale of
Cooked Meat Products.
"Mention must be made here of the technique used by a
well-known provision firm as it probably represents the best standard
found in this field. The trade is heavy, and by good management
they are able to sell the customer tinned cooked meats
within, on average, forty-five minutes of opening. A special slicing
machine is kept for cooked meat, which is cleansed several times
daily. A notice above the machine forbids the assistant to handle
either the cooked meats or the machine unless the hands have
been washed immediately prior to use. Cooked meats are
removed from the tin, sliced, interleaved with grease-proof paper
and immediately returned to the refrigerator until required for the
shop where their average time under protected display is about
fifteen minutes. All manufactured cooked meats delivered to the
shop are coded and they are sold within two days, or removed from
sale at the end of that time. Except for pastry covered pies, the
treatment of these manufactured cooked meats is the same as that
described above for tinned meats.
"Appendix III is a code of practice developed by us over the
past four years as a result of practical experience. It is an amended
resume of three circulars sent to all cooked meat retailers in this
Borough
"This code is designed to meet all classes of premises handling
cooked meats, and by no means represents the ideal standard ; it
is no more than a compromise between the best and worst standards
found.
Summary and Conclusions.
"(1) It has been shown that in some cases grossly contaminated
and stale cooked meats are being sold to the public. Some 33% of
those sampled were found to be unsatisfactory.
"(2) It has been shown that samples of cooked meats obtained
from butchers' shops show the highest proportion of unsatisfactory
results, and this may be due to cross contamination from raw to
cooked meats.
"(3) The routine sampling of cooked meats, with subsequent
visits by the District Inspectors to interpret the results and to give
guidance to the retailers, has resulted in significant improvement in
the technique of handling cooked meats.