View report page

32
But the Ministry have not been prepared to depend entirely on the inspection
abroad, because they have always prohibited the importation of certain classes of
meat such as scrap meat, meat from the chest or belly from which the serous membrane
has been detached, and meat from which any of the lymph glands usually inspected
have been removed. The idea obviously has been to prohibit meat in such small
pieces that examination is not practicable, and also meat from which evidence of
disease may have been deliberately removed. But this object is not attained, firstly,
because of the definition of scrap meat. If a piece of meat, however small, can be
identified with a definite part of a carcase it is not scrap meat and is admissible.
Experienced inspectors and butchers can say exactly from what part of a carcase
quite small pieces of boneless meat are derived. Therefore many pieces of meat
which are quite unexaminable must be admitted if they bear an Official Certificate
of inspection in the country of origin.
Secondly, though serous membranes may not be detached, pieces of meat are
cut from the chest or abdominal wall which comprise only a very small portion of
pleura or peritoneum, and we are again absolutely dependent on the inspection abroad.
Finally, though the removal of certain lymphatic glands is prohibited, it is not
illegal to cut so as to exclude lymphatic glands from the piece of meat. Meat arrives
so cut as not to include any of the specified glands, but we cannot reject it unless we
are satisfied that the glands have been deliberately taken out. Again, therefore,
we are absolutely dependent upon the Official Certificate.
As regards the issue of the Official Certificate in the meat inspecting countries
there are the following possibilities:—
(1) The standard of inspection, the organisation and the system of certification
may be entirely satisfactory, in which case inspection of imported meat for
disease would be unnecessary in this country, and inspection could be
confined to the detection of conditions arising during transport, viz., decomposition,
mould growths and brine staining.
(2) The standard of inspection may be high, but the organisation and/or the
system of certification may be unsatisfactory, thus vitiating to some extent
the value of the inspection. In such case a check in this country is desirable.
(3) The standard of inspection may be unsatisfactory. This, I think, is
unlikely, but I would point out that by the definition of Official Certificate
certified meat should be derived from animals free from disease at the time
of slaughter. There are a number of localised diseases of animals which
do not render the whole carcase unfit for food; the Meat Inspector abroad
cannot, therefore, take the definition of Official Certificate literally, and must
to some extent use his discretion as to what he should pass for export to
this country. I submit that it would be better to prescribe the same
standards of inspection abroad of meat destined for the English market as
are recommended to Meat Inspectors at home. (Ministry of Health
Memorandum 62/Foods.)
We come, therefore, to this point, either we must rely absolutely on the inspection
in the meat exporting countries or we must be able to check such inspection when
the meat arrives here. If the former policy is to be adopted there is no need for a
prohibited class of meat in the new Regulations. If the latter is to continue to be
our policy, then meat should arrive in such form that it is possible by inspection to
form an opinion as to its freedom from disease.
It may be argued that the major part of the imports of meat is examinable,
consisting as it does of quarters of beef and carcases of mutton and pork. This is
true, but it is the best meat, and therefore meat which least needs inspection, which
arrives in this form. There also arrive a number of cuts of first-class meat, but it is,
generally speaking, the inferior meat which is unexaminable. If we are going to
accept the inferior meat blindly we might as well accept the better meat without
inspection.
This is not a new problem, but the Quota system of controlling imports has
brought it to a head because of the increase in the number and variety of cuts and in