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Category (2) - 3,265 cartons
An application was received from a firm who stated it was their intention, subject to the material
being released to them, to thoroughly clean the butter by scraping and shaving, blend with
added salt and put into tins marked "Cooking Butter" for shipment to the West Indies.
Here again, after consultation with the local Medical Officer of Health, the butter was released
to the premises of the firm in question, and there dealt with under his supervision, in the manner
mentioned above.
Category (3)—251 cartons and a quantity of loose collected pieces of butter, representing
97 cartons.
This butter being considered unfit for human consumption, a written guarantee was obtained
from the firm applying for the butter and, after consultation with the local Medical Officer of
Health, was released on the understanding that it would be taken direct to their premises and
there used for technical purposes only, under his supervision.
In arriving at the above decisions for releasing this butter your Medical Officer was influenced
by the findings of the Public Analyst and the Bacteriologist, neither of whom found anything
abnormal in the samples submitted to them so that the question of any risk to the public health
did not arise, it was more a question of protecting the retailer against complaints that the butter
was "not of the nature, substance and quality demanded by the purchaser".
This matter has been reported at some length simply as another instance of the large amount of
detailed administration involved in occurences of this kind.
BANANAS FROM THE WEST INDIES
In November 1955, your Medical Officer received a letter from the London Manager of the
Jamaica Producers' Marketing Co., Ltd., in which they stated that they had received a letter from
the Research Department of the Jamaican Banana Board, the sole exporters of this product from
Jamaica, informing them that it is hoped to start spraying trials with a new mist-spraying technique
using oil based fungicidal mixtures for the control of Leaf Spot.
Leaf Spot is apparently the name given to a disease caused by spores floating in the air which
settle on the banana leaves and since bananas breathe through their leaves, if this function is
in any way retarded, the leaves fall off and the bunches of bananas become stunted in their
growth.
As the result of an interview with the London Manager of the Marketing Company, it was agreed
that, if and when the trial lots of fruit from trees so treated arrived in the Port of London and
your Medical Officer was given due notice of their arrival, he would arrange for samples to be
submitted to the Public Analyst and depending upon the report received from him pronounce
whether or not the spray used rendered the bananas unfit for human consumption.
On the 12th March, 1956, your Medical Officer received a further letter from the Jamaica Producers'
Marketing Co. Ltd., stating that a small experimental lot of about 20 stems of bananas
treated with an oil-based fungicidal spray had been shipped from Jamaica and would be arriving
in the Royal Docks on the 19th March.
At the same time a letter was received from the Research Department of the Banana Board in
Kingston, Jamaica, in reply to a request made by your Medical Officer, as to the composition of
the spray used, which was as follows:—
The composition of the spray which is applied at the very low-volume rate of 2% gallons per
acre, has been:—
4.5 gallons of Esso Orchard Spray Oil
1.1 gallons of Diesel Oil
6.6 lbs. of Copper Oxychloride."
tJh WaS agreed Withthe Ma*eti?g Company that on discharge of the bananas samples of the
fruit would be taken by your Senior Health Inspector for submission to this Authority's Public
Analyst while the remainder would be allowed to be taken to the Company's Store at Clapham
Junction for observation and ripening.
As the removal of the bananas to Clapham Junction would involve the Battersea Public Health
Department, your Medical Officer wrote to the Medical Officer of Health of Battersea acquainting
him of the circumstances and inviting his co-operation. He replied that he would be pleased to
nelp in any way possible.
In the meantime the samples drawn by your Health Inspector (five "hands") were sent to the
Public Analyst together with an explanatory letter and a request that his report should give an
indication of the nature and amount of the deposits on the banana skin and whether there was
any contamination of the actual fruit itself.
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