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The economics of the position — detention, delays for sampling and condemnation of cargoes
exert strong pressures on the producer and the importer to put his house in order.
To sum up, there are still many who maintain that as the evidence of this or that food ever
having been directly responsible for food poisoning is at most flimsy or non-existent, there is no
justification for any control — this was the attitude encountered during a survey of all types of
imported cheese, some of which gave extremely unfavourable results — in fact during the survey
a particular type of cheese under investigation was found to have been directly responsible for
outbreaks of food poisoning in two hospitals affecting 120 patients.
Of course a contaminated food does not always cause food poisoning, but it could, and it is
just this possibility that justified the controls applied.
The real justification of all this additional expense of money, time and effort must be that
large quantities of contaminated food that would normally have reached the public not many years
ago are now prevented from appearing on the market, and that producers must now apply sound
hygienic principles to the production of food should they wish to avoid the condemnation of their
cargoes.
LEAD IN TEA
Dr. H. Amphlett Williams, Public Analyst to the Corporation of London reports as follows:—
A significant improvement appears to have resulted from the measure taken to reduce contamination
of tea by lead and its compounds.
When the inspection of imported tea was taken over from the Department of Customs and
Excise in January 1959 by the City and Port Health Authorities the presence of lead was occasionally
found in consignments from certain countries, notably China, Formosa and Indonesia, Quantities
ranging from 10 to 30 parts per million were found in several consignments, and in single
ones, respectively, 35, 45, 55, 60, 55-70, 80, 130-140 and 250-280 parts per million. In one special
Formosa green tea, 350 parts per million of lead was found, probably introduced by the "facing".
Having regard to the large quantities of tea consumed by a considerable section of the
population and to the fact that lead is a cumulative poison, these proportions of lead might
present a serious health hazard if the consignments were released for unrestricted use.
Recognition by the Government of the dangers of consuming food contaminated by lead
resulted in the passing of the Lead in Food Regulations, 1961, which came into force on 16th
April, 1962. The regulations lay down a general limit for lead in food of 2 parts per million,
although.tea has been treated more leniently, with a limit of 10 parts per million. This higher
limit takes into account that only a proportion of the lead, estimated at about one third, has
been found to pass into the infusion.
As soon as the Regulations had been approved and before they came into force the attention
of all principal London Importers and Tea Merchants was drawn to the new legal requirement for
tea by circular letter, and an article on the occurrence of lead in tea, explaining in simple terms
its danger to health and suggesting possible sources of contamination and means of prevention,
was published in the Tea and Rubber Mail on 4th January, 1962.
A comparison of the incidence of lead contamination in imported samples of tea with that
of previous years is therefore of particular interest.

The abseace of a single instance of excessive lead contamination in the consignments of
tea samples at the City and Port wharves in 1962 is noteworthy.
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