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Your Medical Officer received the following letter from the Consul-General
for Belgium, in the matter of tinned spinach:—
Sir, 15th January, 1925.
I am in receipt of a letter from Mr. -, manufacturer of canned goods at C- in
Belgium, enclosing copy of your correspondence with him concerning 25 cases of canned
spinach lying at "I" warehouse, St. Katharine's Dock, ex ss. "Arran Firth." He begs me to
intervene to avoid the destruction of the goods he sent to London, and asks for leave to reexport
the goods to my country. I should feel obliged if you could see your way to grant the
required authorisation.
I draw your attention to the fact that Mr.- is a very honourable gentleman, who
had certainly not in mind the contravening of the regulations in your country, and therefore
such measures as destruction should not be applied in his case.
Awaiting the favour of your reply,
I am, Sir,
&c., &c.
and replied as under:— 16th January, 1925.
Sir,
I have the honour of your communication of the 15th January with regard to Mr.-' s
canned goods and regret that I see no way of granting the authorisation for the return of the
goods you seek on Mr. -' s behalf. I do not doubt Mr.-' s bona fides, but under the
order of the Port of London Sanitary Authority in the matter of excessively coppered vegetable
matter, various consignments from Belgium have been already destroyed and to make an
exception in this case would be a want of consistency which would be quite confusional.
The only way for consistent dealing with the material at present is that Mr.- should
authorise Messrs. D. R. E. & Co. to sign the notice for destruction which is with them.
Hoping you will see the difficulty of acceding to your courteous request.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(Sgd.) W. M. WILLOUGHBY,
Medical Officer of Health,
Port of London.
The 25 cases, above referred to, were eventually destroyed by consent of the
owners.
FUMIGATION OF FRUIT.
In September it was brought to my notice that an operation for the fumigation
of dried fruits was in process in the Port, and that this operation required a gas
mask on the part of the operator.
A knowledge of the essence of the process was necessary to your Medical Officer
from two points of view, first that of the purity of the food, and, secondly that of
the security to human beings during the process.
On communication with Australia House, for it appeared that the Dried
Fruit Board of the Australian Commonwealth were chiefly concerned in the matter,
the exact constitution of the spray was courteously communicated to me in confidence.
The process is a commercial secret.
On examination and consideration of the method and circumstances under
which the fumigation was carried out, I had no hesitation in expressing approval
of the methods.
Questions then arose as to the workers who discharge the cargoes. It appears
that if the barges set apart for the process are unloaded too early after fumigation,
the unloading is distinctly unpleasant. This unpleasantness is the precise measure
of any danger or rather discomfort which may arise from the ingredients of the
fumigant. I have suggested that the necessary time for airing a barge would vary
with the meteorological conditions but that the men should not enter such a barge
after fumigation in less than one hour from the opening out. If by that time the
smell is still distinctly disagreeable a further period should elapse. I have also
expressed the view that the Port of London Sanitary Authority is far from having
any objection to a process which seems effective in dealing with larvae in currants
and dried fruit generally, on the contrary highly approves this advance in the treatment
of food which on storage might itself deteriorate or be the source of infection
of other material. The constituents of the fumigant being evaporable leave no
residue whatever on the fruit.
I have not yet tested the efficacy of the process by actual experiment but
conclude that an expensive process would not be pursued unless it had been found
of commercial value and thus secondarily of benefit to the consumer.
The Publication Department of the Bournville Works have recently produced
a brochure—" Insect Pests in the Cacao Store," by A. W. Knapp, B.Sc., F.I.C.,
which is distinctly interesting to Medical Officers who are concerned with the
destruction of insects in the food store or in general.