HEALTH NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 495, 26 October 1928, Page 13

HEALTH NOTES

FOODSTUFFS HYGIENIC HANDLING (Contributed by the Department of Health.) Persons, places and preparation are the three most important factors to be considered in controlling the manufacture and sale of foodstuffs. Adequate regulations are provided under the Health Act and the duty of seeing that the regulations are carried out devolves on the local authorities. In addition to the control of the actual conditions under which foods are produced there are also standards of purity laid down—the use of preservatives, artificial colours, and artificial flavours being strictly controlled and labelling conditions imposed so that the public shall not be misled as to the nature or quality of the article concerned. The risks to health arising from the consumption of contaminated food are evidenced from time to time by acute food poisoning outbreaks. At times serious effects may be caused by bacterial infection not clearly indicated. For instance, milk supplied from a certain source was found not to keep as well as it should. Apparently the conditions at the farm were quite satisfactory and the milking machine apparatus kept scrupulously clean. However, a very minute examination showed that in one place where the milk passed along a wooden chute a small partial splinter had occurred and underneath it had accumulated a colony of filth that took toll of all the milk passing over it. Food Poisoning The majority of serious food poisoning outbreaks are caused by contamination due to bacteria of human or animal origin. The human being can Infect food by bacteria harboured in the bowel or in the respiratory tract. The risk from animal sources is attributable to their intestinal bacteria and organisms present on their feet picked up in walking or running over unwholesome matter and later transferring same to the food of man upon which they feed. Flies, cockroaches, beetles, etc., infect food by filth present upon their legs and .bodies after feeding upon excreta of various sorts, and subsequently walking upon our food in their act of further feeding. Let us consider further individual classes of foodstuffs and their risks. Meat This is derived in this country in greater part from home supplies of cattle, sheep, lambs and pigs, killed in municipal abattoirs or licensed slaughter yards and subject to careful inspection both in the live and dead state by a Government veterinarian and meat inspectors, who condemn wholly or in part any unsound carcase. In meat the cell death is com-

paratively rapid, and this being so, putrefaction is liable to set lin early, hence every effort must be made to retard this change as long as possible by storage in refrigerators immediately the body heat has passed off. This cold storage is necessary till shortly before sale. Meat for local consumption should not be so stored for more than three weeks, as if held longer moulds form upon the carcase and liquefaction of tissue takes place due to the presence of ferments therein. Meats are kept over longer periods by corning, pickling, spicing, or smoking. By processing in tins they can keep wholesome for years, provided the processing temperature is sufficient. We include poultry, game, fish, shellfish, and crustaceans under the title meat. Meat ife a good medium for the growth of bacteria. Fish Change in the state of this food is more rapid than meat in general, and it is also subject to great seasonal variations of quality in any particular kind of fish. The transport conditions for the forwarding of this food are not yet rapid enough, nor are the railway vans specially constructed for this purpose. Great improvement could he effected in this way. Crayfish are not readily contaminated after they are boiled, provided they are kept intact, as their protective body covering prevents this taking place under ordinary conditions in fish shops. The same applies to prawns and shrimps. These latter are readily infected if removed from out of their I bony shell coverings. Shellfish These comprise oysters, pipis. tolieroas, mussels, etc. It is highly necessary that these he obtained only from beds which are known to be free from sewage pollution, and approved by the Marine Department. Shellfish should not be immersed in waters of harbours or river mouths owing to possible risk of sewage waters. Shellfish have been responsible for many cases of enteric fever at different times. Milk The greatest care is necessary in handling this food, as it forms a perfect medium in which disease germs can multiply very rapidly should they gain an entrance, iiome pasteurisation, particularly in the hotter months, is always advisable. Milk has been responsible for an outbreak of enteric fever in one New Zealand city, 39 cases of scarlatina in another, and an outbreak of diphtheria in a third. Bovine tuberculosis can be contracted through milk. Cholera and dysentery have been caused by use of infected milk. Ice creams, etc., are liable to be Infected, due to careless I preparation and handling. Bread and Confectionery j Bread, owing to its absence of outside moisture, is not conducive to the growth of disease-provoking organisms, and hence it rarely offends in this respect. Cakes with cream or jelly fillings or those coated with soft icing are the most productive of harm, due to bacteria becoming established 1 in the fillings.