CLEAN FOOD [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—There is no more potent cause of disease, sickness, and ill-health than unclean germ-laden food. The way the chief daily foods such as meat, fish, milk, bread, vegetables, and fruit are sold 'is most unhygienic.
Food should be touched as little as possible by the hands, but put into sanitary oil-paper proof bags by stainless steel tongs which can be easily rendered aseptic by steam. The assistants who serve the goods ought also to wear sanitary overalls. All the precautions mentioned are certainly necessary with regard to bread, milk, and fruit, which is consumed raw without being washed or fired to destroy any catching complaint that may easily become attached to such food. I have no doubt a number of cases of tubercu- losis, fevers, and skin complaints have originated through consuming dirty food.
And there are a number of minor complaints due to the same cause which puzzle the physician, who cannot make a correct diagnosis or prescribe an efficient cure, because the poison is still daily entering the system.
I remember a case, where the whole family suffered from constant ill-health, until they gave up all their tradesmen and dealt at a certain store where the food was all kept under cover and ordinary hygienic methods were used to prevent
flies, small rodents, and dust from ctn it. The sale was a quick one, fresh stores Were served daily, and the assistants Were a superior class of young persons dressed in brown starched overalls.
There is no economy so great as preventing disease and sickness, for these are the cause of much unemployment, bad and slow work.
A rigid Clean Food Bill would be of the greatest value to the nation and the individual. The only people to suffer would be the medical profession.—I am, Sir, &c., T. D. (M.D.).
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