View report page

124
premises, when visited by a Sanitary Inspector, were found
to be a large warehouse used for the reception and sorting
of considerable quantities of packet and tinned food. A
large quantity of unsound food was found, which the
dealer alleged he had not had time to sort. This dealer
does a wholesale and retail trade, but does not sell by
retail in the district in which his warehouse is situated.
He buys doubtful material for sorting and supplies jam
factories, confectionery makers, stallholders, shopkeepers,
etc. This affords an example of the difficulty in dealing
with food which is deposited, on the statement of the
owner, for sorting and not for sale for human consumption.
It is to be remembered that a Sanitary Inspector has no
authority to examine food unless it is deposited for sale,
exposed for sale, or sold. The Sanitary Inspector must,
generally speaking, wait until the sorting has been carried
out before he can seize any unsound food in such circumstances
.
The following case which occurred this year will show the
difficulties that exist in dealing with this question of sorting under
existing powers:—
A sanitary inspector in Tottenham seized some unsound tinned
goods from a dealer who at that time carried on business in both
Tottenham and Hackney. The dealer instructed his men to pick
up the goods, which had been placed in a box on the pavement,
and put them in his motor car which he drove to Hackney followed
by a Tottenham inspector in the Tottenham Council van which
had been sent for to remove the tins.
We were informed by Tottenham, and Hackney inspectors,
after considerable difficulty, removed 87 tins of unsound food from
the warehouse, which were condemned by the Magistrate and
destroyed.
Proceedings being taken, however, the case was dismissed.
That is a bald outline of a case which, among other interesting
details, is stated to have included a threat of assault against the
Tottenham inspector and very considerable difficulties in Hackney
even as regards the examination of the tins. The defence, of
course, was that the goods were awaiting sorting.
Proceedings were taken in Tottenham for obstructing the
inspector in this case. The following is a newspaper account of the
proceedings:—