NEW MEAT REGULATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 112, 14 May 1925, Page 8

NEW MEAT REGULATIONS.

WHITE OVERALLS AT SMITHFEELD. MEAT RETAILERS PROTEST. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, April 8. One of the first active measures taken by the New Zealand Meat Producers Boards when it came to England was to take steps to promote better cleanliness of handling of meat Whether or no cause and effect are to be seen in the recent issue of new regulations by the British Health Minister as to the methods of retailing meat it is hard to say, but this is clear that here and now in this month of April, 1025, there are new regulations which ought, if carried to their limit, to go far to obviate some of, the uncleanly way in which the household joint is handled in the Old Country. One outward and visible sign on April 1 was the appearance in Smithtield market of meat salesmen arrayed in white overalls and white caps. ' With the innate conservatism of the Britisher, the salesmen did not appear to relish their new dress. Rather they chose to look on it as a joke and in the nature of a fancy dress. But all the same, there can be no doubt that a dress of this sort—adopted long ago by doctors and dentists on hygienic grounds and in use already in the best-organised dairy companies—should have some effect in keeping meat for human consumption in a more cleanly condition.

The new regulations, however in other directions are very drastic, for it appears that they may be interpreted as implying that no meat may be sold retail in shops which are not provided with glass windows, electric fans and muslin curtains to pjotect the meat. A deputation of the Retail Butchers' Association approached Sir William Ball, M.P. It declared that the regulations in this respect were unworkable, and representations are to lie made with regard to them to the Minister of Health. As a mere onlooker we can attest that 'thers- .seems to be no haste on the part of the butchers' shops to make use of these hygienic rules. The better class shops, have, of course, had a number of them in use for some time, but the smaller establishments in the working-class districts, certainly, have not reached such a pitch of perfection as the Minister of Health appears to look for.