London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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City of London 1913

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Port of London]

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43
The five Assistant Medical Officers have been appointed by the Corporation, with
the consent of the Local Government Board, to act in the execution of these regulations,
either in the place of, or as Assistants to the Medical Officer of Health ; whilst the
Food and Sanitary Inspectors have been similarly appointed to act under my direction
in the exercise of any such powers, or in the discharge of any such duties as I may
direct in the performance of these regulations.
Therefore, instead of the food inspection being carried out by three Food Inspectors,
as heretofore, the staff engaged upon the work now consists of—
Three Food Inspectors,
Ten Sanitary Inspectors,
Five Assistant Medical Officers.
And in spite of the increased staff engaged it is only by temporarily transferring
Inspectors from one district to another that foodstuffs can be inspected so as to avoid
delay in their delivery to the importers.
The following figures will serve to illustrate some of the additional work carried
out as regards Food inspection.

During the quinquennium preceding the introduction of the before-mentioned Regulations, the annual numbers of seizures of unsound food were:—

Year.Number of seizures.
1904559
1905469
1906450
1907455
1908434 Annual average 473.4.

Whereas during the succeeding quinquennium the annual numbers were :—

Year.Number of seizures.
1909599
1910827
1911750
1912705
1913780 Annual average 732.2.

Further the weight of food stuffs seized and destroyed as unfit for human food in
the year preceding the introduction of the Regulations, namely 1908, was 992 tons,
whereas in the year 1912 it totalled 3,758 tons, and in 1913, 2,845 tons.
These figures, however, do not express the additional work performed by your
officers, but simply the increase in the amount of Unsound Food seized and destroyed.
Additional work by way of inspection naturally results in a corresponding increase
of office work.
«
It has become necessary to redistribute the duties in the office in order that the
First Assistant Clerk may devote his whole time to the clerical work arising from Food
Inspection.