THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1906. FOOD INSPECTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13225, 10 July 1906, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1906. FOOD INSPECTION.

The action of the Stock Department in taking legal steps to enforce the regulations made for preventing the sale of meat unfit, for human consumption will have the entire approval of the public. As was pointed out yesterday by the local stock inspector in the Police Court, existing regulations are sometimes evaded, and there are circumstances under which it may be desirable that more stringent precautionary regulations should be adopted. Without traversing in any way the decisions arrived at by Mr. Kettle in yesterday's cases we must call public attention to the imperative necessity of ensuring not only that our great food staples should be sound in themselves, but that they should be treated and handled under clean and hygienic conditions. This particularly applies to meat, milk, and bi'ead. Reputable firms engaged in the purveying of these articles of food universally recognise that their reputation depends upon their taking all possible precautions to protect the health of their customers. But those who are most careful in their respective businesses will most heartily agree that in order to prevent serious public injury from too frequent negligence stringent inspection is called for all along the line. It. is very necessary to prevent the slaughtering for food of any., beast

unfit; for human consumption, the dairying of diseased cows, the use of unwholesome flour, which prevention forms the first line of defence in the interest of the public health. But inspection does not and* should hot stop here ; indeed it is after this j preliminary precaution* has been i taken that the s most, difficult* and ! patient work has to be done. As has been repeatedly asserted by the more intelligent of our Health Officers, the law which aims at securing the purity and wholesomeness of our foods is still in embryo,, while inspectors know that for lack of a strong public opinion they are com« pelled to ignore many shortcomings which they hope some day to abolish. ' . i

The efficient control of the meat supply within municipal areas is being steadily'brought about, although it is very doubtful if it can ever be brought to perfection until all food beasts, throughout the country, are periodically inspected and all the diseased animals destroyed, with compensation to owners." In the best interests of our agriculturists, as of our meat and milk consumers, this process is to be . much desired. It is the only way to reach disease at its-source, and "would be found to repay the trouble and expense tenfold in the end. But apart from this v purification of the sources of supply, there is, especially in the case of milk, continual danger of contamination between the cow and the 'consumer. Many dairies are all that could be desired and. many suppliers deserve every credit for their determined and, sustained efforts to deliver milk in an absolutely pure condition.- But even the dairies are not always as clean' as they ought to be, while some dairymen have still much to learn as to the value of the personal cleanliness of their milkers. It is in shops, however, that there is most need for official intervention. Nothing becomes contaminated more quickly or more thoroughly than milk, as is recognised and provided for by up-to-date suppliers. It must be confessed, unfortunately, that provision agairlst the contamination of milk in shops is far from being universal, and . there is too much reason to fear that.this has a deleterious effect, upon the public health, notably upon the health of children. As long as regulations td ensure the purity of milk are reasonable and intelligible they cannot be too stringent or too insistently enforced. In many European cities it has 'been found 'necessary to open municipal milk , shops, so that an absolutely pure article may be obtained for children, but this ought to be quife unnecessary in a. country like New, Zealand if public opinion would only exert itself to sustain, the authorities in' the enforcement of sufficiently effective regulations.

.Upon meat and milk inspection there can hardly be any difference of opinion or lack of interest, but bread appears ,to be regarded with comparative indifference. Yet it -is .a food which cannot be too wholesomely prepared. It is the common staple of every class and eaten l at j every meal. Roughly speaking the ; poorer a man is the more bread he ' eats, which is only an additional argument for such rigid inspection as will prevent - him from being served with an improperly-prepared 'loaf. .There are bakehouse inspections, of course, but so far we have left it largely to the 'master baker* whether he will kneed and bake in a cleanly or in 4 a haphazard way. What "haphazard" may ,mean in a bakehouse those master- bakers who ..are purveying clean and wholesome loaves can best • tell us, for their working life is one long fight against the most objectionable forms of uncleanliness .and filthmess. ' This should not be. There should; be a standard for bakehouses, as a standard for butchers!.- shops and milk —standards which up-to-date tradesmen have 'themselves set up and with which all others should either comply or close their doors. And there should be similar standards of personal cleanliness, without which we can never exclude from the making Hof bread all persons of offensive personal habits. This is not a pleasant topic, but it is a.public and a pressing one, which it would be preposterous to refuse to consider and discuss. The public must be able to rely upon being served with wholesome meat,' pure milk, clean bread, wherever these universal foods are offered for sale; the only way to reach such, a state of civilisation is by well-considered and possibly inquisitorial inspection.