A Crusade . for Clean Food A NYONE who has seen
the way American bread is delivered daily. in a neat waterproof wrapping must deplore the slovenly handling of the staff of life to which we are still accustomed in England. How often does the loaf fall on a dusty road or down the area steps ? A correspondent writes to tell us that opposite his flat in a London suburb is a bakery, whose assistants each morning take off their coats and caps and place them in the bakery carts or in the bread baskets outside the shop.
They then descend to the bakery and return with wooden bread-trays which they place on the pavement close to the gutter before loading the bread into the carts and baskets. On one occasion he has seen a horse licking a confectioner's tray in which jam tarts were afterwards put. On another he has watched loaves of bread that had fallen in the dusty road being flicked with a dirty handkerchief before being distributed to consumers. While such carelessness is allowed to continue in the light of day, what wretched practices may not go on unseen ?
Bread is the commonest food in England. It is sub- jected to no sterilizing heat after purchase as meat is, and therefore any microbe picked up in handling passes directly into the recipient's digestive apparatus. Is it a counsel of perfection to suggest that every loaf should be wrapped directly it leaves the oven, and that no naked bread should be permitted to leave a bakery except in special circumstances ?
Meat is even more carelessly treated than bread. It is often carried in carts bespattered with blood, both fresh and stale. Sometimes the driver sits on top of the carcases. Often both the clothes and the hands of those handling the meat are dirty. True, meat is supposed to be wrapped in clean muslin on its journey to the butcher, but the law would appear to be honoured as often in the breach as in the observance. Having reached the retailer, what happens to our beef or mutton ? Too often the carcases are set up in the open without protection from flies, to be handled by dirty hands or dirtier gloves.
Then there is the ghastly " Slink Trade," which is well known to all butchers and which the best of them deplore, but cannot combat without supporting that long overdue reform for which we hive so often pleaded—the abolition of the private slaughter-house. In a northern town recently the Health Officer found a secret room in a butcher's shop containing nine pieces of diseased meat, which were immediately seized. One of these pieces was extensively infected with tuberculosis as well as being dropsical. Six other pieces were also tubercular. The accused in this case had several previous convictions for holding tuberculous meat for sale. He was a " slink butcher "—one who buys condemned animals and peddles the contaminated offal to anyone who will buy. The maximum sentence of three months' hard labour was inflicted. But mark the sequel. Enriched by the profits of his nefarious trade, the " slink butcher " was able to appeal. He briefed a famous barrister, who succeeded in reducing the sentence to a fine. The accused's wife had - also been fined a year previously for having deposited on her premises a beef skull that was unfit for human food.
If the infliction of corporal punishment is justifiable at all, we would .suggest that in disgusting and dangerous crimes connected with the purveyance of filthy food it might sometimes be applied with advantage.
There should not, of course, be any private slaughter. houses in England. As long as they exist the detestable " slink " traffic will continue, although in places which have energetic Medical Officers of Health we may hope for some measure of control.
With regard to milk, there has been much legislation, yet the public are still under the impression that " Grade A " milk is the highest instead of being an inferior grade of " graded " milks. All milks which are not " graded " are of doubtful purity, and if milk is given to children in its raw state (unpasteurized and unboiled) it should be " certificated " milk only.
It would be possible (and we feel desirable) to provide consumers of milk—that is, practically every family in England—with information with regard to the qualities of milk available and the best methods of keeping milk in the home. There is still an idea, in the less educated homes, that milk requires " ventilation," and it is there- fore exposed to dust and dirt.
As regards meat, the butcher's shop, where bleeding forms are hung out for passers-by to admire and flies to lay their eggs in, is surely a barbarous anachronism. Both meat and fish should be kept out of sight and in cold storage : no meat should be sold except that from .municipal slaughter-houses.
Similarly with sweets, groceries, or fruit : it should be forbidden by law to expose them in such a position that customers can cough or breathe over them.. Bread, as we have already suggested, should be wrapped in grease paper immediately after baking.
Are these reforms possible and probable in the near future ? We do not see why not. The question of expense will be raised by those concerned in continuing .abuses, but we have yet to find that cleanliness and good order are expensive in the long run.. - It is particularly the province of women to advocate and enforce suggestions such as we have outlined. They may do so in several ways ; as, for example, by speaking to their tradespeople on the subject of clean food and urging their friends and neighbours to do so ; by writing to the local Health Officer concerning instances of neglect-; by making rigorous inquiries, if asked to subscribe to any health organization, as to what such a body is doing for the cause ; and finally by making their influence felt in both national and municipal politics. We cannot hope for a high standard in these matters until every buyer of foodstuffs insists on the cleanliness of what she or he- may purchase. As Abraham Lincoln said of another but not graver issue : " Publii sentiment is everything ; with public sentiment nothrtig can fail ; without it nothing can succeed."
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