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who established special installations, and the coffee was cleansed, sifted, sorted,
washed, dried and roasted, and there was no doubt that it was subsequently
sold for human consumption. The expensive process to which it had been
subjected was quite unnecessary if the beans had been used as manure or the
extraction of caffeine.
Having listened to the whole of the evidence the Magistrate decided that
the coffee was unsound and unfit for human consumption, and that there was
an absence of proof that the coffee was not intended for sale as human food.
He therefore condemned the coffee, and ordered it to be disposed of under the
supervision of the Medical of Health by such means and in such a manner as
to prevent it being used for human consumption.
It was eventually destroyed, with the approval of His Majesty's Customs,
by shooting it on a mud field and burying it.
FOOD INSPECTION AT QUEEN BOROUGH.
The inspection of foodstuffs arriving at Queenborough from Flushing has
been carried out by Dr. E. Y. Legge, with the assistance of a Food Inspector
sent down occasionally. The importations consist chiefly of fresh meat—
pork, veal and offal. The pig carcasses had affixed the official certificate of the
Netherlands Government as approved by the Local Government Board, and it
has been usual to examine a percentage of the carcasses arriving to see that
they bear the official certificate, and also to examine the glands about the
throat to see that they have not been removed and show no signs of disease,
only occasionally a carcass is found in which the presence of tuberculosis has
escaped the observation of the veterinary inspector in Holland.
The offal, on the other hand, has received special attention, especially when
it bore the label of certain slaughterhouses in Holland, where apparently the
inspection was not so rigorous as could be desired. All offal showing signs of
disease was seized and destroyed, and as a result the condition has considerably
improved.
The total amount of offal seized as unfit for food and destroyed during the
year was about 32 cwts.