Price Tags As ‘A Poisoner’

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30706, 23 March 1965, Page 3

Price Tags As ‘A Poisoner’

(New Zealand Pres* Association) AUCKLAND, March 22. A recent warning by an English doctor that the practice of sticking price tags into pre-cooked meat was a potential poisoner of meat was supported by two Auckland health inspectors.

Dr. William Ward, Medical Officer of Health in Gainsborough, Lincoln, England, writing in “The Times,” advised the public not to buy pre-cooked meat if it had been pierced by a price tag. Dr. B. W. Christmas, Medical Officer of Health in Auckland, said that the contact of foodstuffs with price tags or hands was an ideal medium for the growth of bacteria.

However, he said, the risk was greatly reduced in raw meat bought from a shop. The fierce heat of cooking eliminated the danger of bacterial growth. Mr R. A. Agnew, the Chief

City Health Inspector, said the practice of piercing precooked meats with price tags was undesirable and should be stopped. “Tags can be pulled out of meat, tossed in a dish and replaced in meat the next day without being washed,” he said.

“If they are left lying around, rats, mice and even cockroaches can contaminate them.”

Cooking of raw meat did not altogether rule out the possibility of infection, especially in a roast where the middle was not always properly cooked.