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Inspection and Supervision of Food.
I he following is the record of inspection of food premises:—
Meat 1098
Fish 267
Provisions 583
Greengroceries and Fruit 511
Hawkers' Food Stuffs 222
Number of other Food Inspections 103
Milk.—I want again to draw attention to the enormous sale of sterilized milk that is taking
place.
It is true, the vast bulk of this is sold in special bottles and the public are aware it is a different
kind of milk to the cream line pasteurised milk that they are accustomed to, but it is a product bereft
of certain important properties, the importance of which seems to be increasing.
Surely the time has come when it should be compulsory to designate sterilized milk according
to its name so as to inform the public exactly what they are buying. A new danger has now arisen
in the selling of loose sterilized milk, the public being under the impression and in fact are being told,
that they are buying "new" milk. With all these designations the public is getting bewildered
and the sooner their number is reduced, in my opinion, the better, but at the same time I feel that
it is definitely unfair to the public that they should be supplied with sterilized milk when they are
not aware of what they are buying.
The position, as far as a Public Authority is concerned, is fraught with difficulty. The milk
vendor who is selling sterilized milk loose may have sample after sample taken and his bacterial
return and his fat content will appear satisfactory according to the present standards, and yet, he is
selling what after all is an article not of the nature and substance demanded.
The difficulty is, there is no legal definition of milk. One milk vendor of sterilized milk being
asked what he sold simply replied to every question "milk." Except for the larger post-war prices,
Wilfred Buckley's definition of milk as a "4d. opalescent fluid" seems as near the truth as anything
else.
Well may the public ask, what is milk ?
795 inspections were carried out in respect of cowsheds, dairies and milkshops.
Unofficial milk analyses are made by the Medical Officer of Health.
Number of firms in the district licensed to sell:—
"Certified" milk 5 (6 shops.)
"Grade A" (Tuberculin Tested) 9 (12 shops)
"Grade A" —
"Grade A" Pasteurised 1 (1 shop)
"Pasteurised" 4 (12 shops)
Meat Inspection.
1. Meat Inspection—This is still kept at a very high pitch of efficiency. The Chief Sanitary
Inspector and the District Sanitary Inspectors hold special certificates for the meat inspection.
Slaughter-houses and butchers' shops are visited periodically.
During the year, 2518¾ lbs. of diseased meat were surrendered. There are 7 slaughter-houses
(4 registered and 3 licenced), in use in the district, and each slaughter-house received on an average
11.75 visits per month. There were 56 butchers' shops in the district at the end of 1932.
2. Public Abattoir.—There is no public abattoir in the district. Slaughtering may take
place at any time, subject to the requisite notice being given. From time to time suggestions have
been brought forward as to the possibility of establishing an abattoir. I have on every occasion
advised against it, on the grounds that I do not think that at the present time the expense is justified,
owing to the fact that by far the greater part of the meat coming into the district is bought at Smithfield
and inspected there. There does not seem to be with the growth of the district any great demand
for further facilities for slaughtering at present.
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