GARDEN SOIL IN BREAD ROLL

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28016, 10 July 1956, Page 16

GARDEN SOIL IN BREAD ROLL

SHOPKEEPER FINED £2/10/"I think that the issue of qnfitness is one of degree upon the particular facts of the case, rather than the matter of interpretation as between ‘soundness’ or ‘unfitness,’ which items are not synonymous and betoken two separate offences,’’ said Mr Rex C. Abernethy, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, when he gave a reserved decision in a case against Elizabeth Agnes Alexander, a shopkeeper, of 44A Ferry road. She was charged with selling a bread roll which was unfit for human consumption because it had garden soil on the lettuce leaf used as a filling. The Magistrate convicted the defendant and fined her £2 10s. The case was heard on June 27 when Mr P. T. Mahon appeared for the Health Department, and Mr J. G. Leggat for the defendant who pleaded not guilty. “The English section of the statute dealing with similar offences is different from the New Zealand section and I propose to decide the issue upon the authority of the decision of Mr Justice Turner in the Donaldson v. Ryan case rather than upon the authority of Mr Justice Hutchison in the Satchwell v. Egmont Bakery Ltd. case, where cardboard and a piece of string were found in a loaf of bread.’’ said the Magistrate. “Notwithstanding that the judges in the case in England decided that the presence of a small piece of iron in a cream cake or the 3d in a Christmas pudding did not pollute the cake, anyone concerned in eating it could say it was unfit to eat. “I feel that the judges in those cases might decide that a bread roll with an unwashpd lettuce leaf, and with soil in contact with the butter, could be termed unfit for human consumption in that anyone presented with it for eating could, in view of its unpleasant eating and the possible danger of bacteria from the soil, have termed it finally as unfit as the piece of razor blade in Donaldson’s case. “The bread roll in this case, with ham, butter, and a dirty lettuce leaf all obviously in unpleasant contiguity, contained the possible danger of infection,” said the Magistrate.