FOOD POISON OUTBREAKS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3147, 11 December 1922, Page 8

FOOD POISON OUTBREAKS.

What is l with our food? Test tubes and the object glasses of high powered microscopes have answered' halt the riddle. Scientific evidence shows that foods in daily consumption ol ten tarry the toxins of deadly germs —toxins that kill in a lew hours. How, when, where, do the germs enter the lood? 1 hat half of the riddle remains sealed to the eye ol the keenest science. Ministry of Health officials, roused by the recent high frequency of food poisoning outbreaks, have undertaken a new and drastic line of investigation. ‘‘\\e have opened: a. close investigation into the preparation a.nd l canning of lood in (ho factories,” said an official of the Mini try of Health to a Newcastle Chronicle and North Mail representative, “Experts, under the direction ol Dr Macfaddcii, the noted .investigator, are thoroughly examining the methods of cooking, preserving, (lacking, and storing these foods. More stringent regulations for factories, where lood is handled, may bo made when the Ministry receives their reports. Moreover, medical officers throughout the country have been instructed to report at once any cases ol supposed food poisoning in thenarea. A Ministry of Health expert will Hum be sent to investigate the outbreak.” Twenty-live new eases of food poisoning have been reported in Manchester. 'lwenty similar casus were reported in the city last week. Pork sausage and cheese are the food suspected in the new eases. The Health Department ol Manchester Corporation. when this new outbreak was reported, issued an urgent request that the public should immediately report any case ol lood poisoning, mild or serious. The following list of foodpoisoning outbreaks recorded in the last two months shows bow urgent is tire* need lor energetic measures: Loch, Marco- Eight persons died after eati"g i meat paste sandwiches. Liverpool —Forty wedding guests ill after eating; various foods, including lobster siimb wiehes. Dover —One hundred persons ill after eating cheese from Montreal. Blackley—Twenty people poisoned by sausages and cheese. Hoxton—-Woman killed by poison in chicken broth, Manchester— Four persons ill after eating veal chops. Southwark —Man died aL ter eating fish paste and mutton sandwiches. Newcastle-on-Tyne— Boy killed by poison in pea soup. Chorlton-on-Medlock— Six people ill alter eating mutton: ime died. Sheffield—-Sixteen. People id after eating veal and ham I'ic.

Mr A. 10. Moore, of the Incorporated A eriniii Repression Society, considers that food poisoning may be due to laxity in laying virus for rats. The Government. lie declares, allow the promiscuous sale for rat. destruction of virus, containing typhoid and acrtryckc baedli. Domestic animals, such as ducks’. 1 owls. and pigs, cat I lie virus placed down for the rats, and the germs arc communicated to human beings when these animals hit killed for the table. Dir .Moore urged the necessity of a Royal Commission to investigate preservatives and poisoning.