CHAPTER XII.

THE SUPERVISION OF THE FOOD SUPPLY.

1. Introduction.-It is not long since, in Scotland at least, the greater part of the food eaten was simple and unsophisticated. Oatmeal porridge and milk, bread, a very few varieties of breadstuffs (such as oatcake and scones), fish, home-killed meat, with rough dainties in the shape of black and white puddings, were the common food of most people. Thousands of forms in which food is presented to-day, from homogenised milk to meat extract, did not exist.

Along with a multitude of developments in the form in which food was presented to the public came a great number of manipulations. Some of these, like the cooling of milk after production, were laudable; some, like the freezing of meat for importation, were inevitable; and many others, such as preservation with chemicals, were of doubtful necessity, and in any case required careful watching.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, and before it, adulterations of food were gross and dangerous. It is doubtful, however, whether the danger to health involved in specific infections of food was realised till much later. It is on the lines of minimising or preventing these two dangers that the administration has developed. One series of miscellaneous enactments deals with the prevention of infection or contamination, and another, the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, 1875 to 1907, is concerned with "the nature, substance and quality of articles of food and drink sold.

Meat and milk, because of their nature and because of the inevitable risks involved in preparation and handling, are specially liable to infection and contamination. The uniform system and standard of meat inspection established in 1923 by the Public Health (Meat) Regulations (Scotland) have functioned well throughout the country. It was comparatively easy to secure the examination of every carcase, and to take all other necessary precautions, in the public slaughterhouses, but the five hundred private slaughterhouses throughout the country presented difficulties. The Regulations, however, by providing for the restriction of hours of slaughter, brought the majority of private slaughterhouses in populous places into line, and the remainder, principally in outlying districts, are visited by officers of the local authorities from time to time.

Food inspectors are in constant attendance at the ports, and the import of certain classes of meat and fat is controlled by the Public Health (Oversea Meat) Regulations, 1925.

In regard to milk, the Milk and Dairies (Scotland) Act, 1914,

a consolidating statute which came into operation on 1st September, 1925, is the principal enactment. The Milk and Dairies (Amendment) Act, 1922, authorised the system of higher-grade milk referred to below. In regard to other foods, the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) Act, 1907, authorises the framing of Regulations for preventing danger to public health from the importation, preparation, storage or distribution of articles of food or drink. The Unsound Food Regulations, 1925, provide for the inspection of all imported foods, and Section 43 of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897, authorises inspection of animals, alive or dead, and articles of food exposed for sale, and the condemnation of any of these if found unfit for the food of man.

2. The Milk and Dairies (Scotland) Act, 1914.-This Act, the operation of which was postponed on account of war conditions, has now been in operation for over a year. In terms of the Act:

(a) the definitions of dairyman and dairy are extended; the provisions regarding registration are made more elastic, and registration of any dairyman may be refused or revoked if premises or persons are unsuitable;

(b) every local authority may, and when required by the Department must, appoint a veterinary inspector, who has security of tenure of his office. Veterinary inspectors are not to engage in private practice in the area for which they are appointed except with the consent of the Department, and the duties of the veterinary inspector, including his relations with other officers of the local authority, are to be the subject of regulations to be approved by the Board;

(c) the cattle in dairies are to be clinically examined by the veterinary inspector at least once in every year. The arrangements for this inspection vary, but in some districts it will be made twice yearly, in others four times a year. In some burghs the inspections are made monthly;

(d) dairies are to be inspected from a sanitary point of view at least once a year. In the great majority of cases this work has been continued in the hands of the sanitary inspector;

(e) the cattle in cowsheds that are exempted from registration, but from which some milk is sold, may be inspected and sanitary inspection of such premises may be made. Almost all local authorities have instructed their veterinary inspector and sanitary inspector to make these inspections;

(f) it is the duty of every local authority to adopt byelaws for dairies in their area. These byelaws are to be confirmed by the Department with the concurrence of the Board of Agriculture for Scotland;

(g) any local authority, in whose district milk is received from another district, may complain to the Department if it has reason to believe that the provisions of the Act or the dairy byelaws are not being carried out in the latter district, and the

Department is empowered to take action in such a case, or in any case where there is neglect of duty;

(h) with the concurrence of the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, Orders may be made for certain purposes connected with milk and dairies;

(i) the sale of milk from cows suffering from recognised forms of tuberculosis or other diseases is prohibited;

(j) dairymen are to notify to the local authority the occurrence of

(1) a sore on the teats, with suppuration or bleeding; (2) any disease liable to infect the milk;

(3) any cow giving tuberculous milk;

and to the medical officer of health the occurrence of symptoms of infectious disease in any person resident at a dairy, or employed there, or residing in the same house as an employee;

(k) persons suffering from infectious disease or sore throat or diarrhoea, or persons who have been in contact with a case of infectious disease, are not to take part in the dairy business without a certificate from a medical practitioner ;

(1) milk supplies in certain circumstances may be stopped by the local authority, and temporarily by the medical officer of health. There is an appeal to the sheriff;

(m) the veterinary inspector may, with the consent of the owner, apply the tuberculin test to any cow. Specimens and samples may be taken for bacteriological examination.

3. Veterinary Inspectors.-As the Act required the specific consent of the Board to any part-time appointment, it was clear that the appointment of whole-time officers, where practicable, was contemplated, and on full consideration of the nature of the veterinary inspector's duties, it was equally clear that the best administration of the Act, in landward districts at any rate, could be secured only by the appointment of officers who were not engaged in private practice.

Circular letters, dated 16th June and 22nd August, 1925, emphasised this aspect of the matter, and local authorities were urged to combine for the purpose, as authorised by Section 3 (2) of the Act. The counties of Ayr, Dumfries and Lanark already had whole-time veterinary inspectors, and new whole-time inspectors were appointed in the counties of Aberdeen, Dunbarton, Fife, Forfar, Kirkcudbright, Midlothian, Stirling and Wigtown. Additional whole-time inspectors were appointed in the counties of Ayr and Dumfries.

In some of the Highland counties the circumstances rendered the appointment of whole-time officers impracticable. The area to be covered in the counties of Argyll, Perth and Ross is very great, and travelling is difficult and slow at all times, so that with frequent calls on his time for work under the Diseases of Animals Acts, a single inspector in any of these counties would have had little chance of overtaking the inspection of cattle in

all the cowsheds in a year. An even more substantial consideration, however, had to be met. In some of these Highland districts it is almost a necessity, if the services of a veterinary surgeon are to be retained in the district, to give him whatever public appointments there may be. In one or two cases it is only by substantial assistance from public funds that a veterinary surgeon is supported at all. In the circumstances, part-time appointments were agreed to in those areas. In some other counties, only one or two of which could have supported a wholetime veterinary inspector on their own account, and even then, of course, only by combination of local authorities, the part-time inspectors who already held office under the Diseases of Animals Acts were appointed, and these appointments were agreed to. The great bulk of the dairy cow population of Scotland will, however, in future be regularly inspected by whole-time inspectors.

4. Veterinary Inspectors in Burghs.-When the Milk and Dairies (Scotland) Act came into operation, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen had whole-time veterinary inspectors, and no other burgh has appointed a whole-time veterinary officer on its own account, though many have secured the services of whole-time officers by joining the landward combinations. The case for part-time officers in burghs was put forward by representatives of the Convention of Royal Burghs, and it was agreed that consent to the part-time to the part-time appointment of veterinary inspectors in burghs would not be withheld if the veterinary inspector agreed not to practise among the owners of dairy cows within the burgh. It was found necessary to waive this condition. in some cases where there was only one resident veterinary surgeon, and where, it was represented, it would be both difficult and expensive to secure the services of another veterinary surgeon in an emergency.

5. Regulation of the Veterinary Inspector's Duties.-Model regulations governing the duties of the veterinary inspector under the Milk and Dairies Act and his relations to other officers of the local authority were issued for the guidance of individual authorities. The first of these regulations is :—

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Subject to the provisions of the Milk and Dairies (Scotland) Act, 1914, and subject also to the administrative superintendence of the medical officer of health, the veterinary inspector shall perform all the duties specially imposed upon a veterinary inspector by &c., &c."

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In the circular issuing the model regulations it was stated that although in administration and in matters of organisation and importance the medical officer of health should be the senior officer, the veterinary inspector in the daily discharge of his duties should have sufficient freedom of action and initiative."

The regulation in the model form has been adopted by local authorities without exception in connection with both wholetime and part-time officers, and it is confidently expected

that this arrangement, which will render the medical officer of health the senior officer but which will give sufficient guaranteed freedom to the veterinary inspector, will help to make the public health work of the veterinary inspectors a success.

6. Annual Reports. On 7th December a circular letter was issued to veterinary inspectors specifying the headings under which their annual reports should be compiled. Suitable headings were also inserted in the annual circular regarding reports of medical officers of health and sanitary inspectors on the sanitary administration of the Act.

7. Dairy Byelaws.-In terms of Section 8 of the Act, every district committee and every town council is required to adopt dairy byelaws (a) for the inspection of cattle in dairies; (b) for prescribing and regulating the structure of dairies; (c) for the prevention of impurities in milk and for securing cleanliness, and (d) for prescribing precautions to be taken against infection or contamination.

Model byelaws were issued by the Board for the guidance of local authorities, after being considered in draft by representative associations of local authorities and of the agricultural industries. The attention of local authorities was drawn to the following important considerations. The byelaws should be carefully considered in order that provisions which could not be enforced, or which might not be required, should be omitted. On the other hand, where a high standard of accommodation and methods already existed through the efforts of the past forty years, it should not be impaired by the adoption of lower standards. The structural provisions of the model dairy byelaws were directed in a measure towards removing those structural conditions of cowsheds that favoured the harbouring of infection, and it was suggested that local authorities should press for structural alterations as opportunity arose, and by persuasion and encouragement wherever possible, but they were advised to make full use of the byelaws, when adopted, for the early improvement of methods of milk production.

At the end of the year byelaws had been submitted for confirmation by 77 out of the 99 district committees, and by 88 burghs. In accordance with Section 8 of the Act, the concurrence of the Board of Agriculture for Scotland is required to the confirmation by this Department, and it was deemed advisable to consult that Board on every substantial point of divergence from the model byelaws or with respect to objections lodged against particular byelaws. Considering that on the one hand local authorities are naturally inclined to pitch their requirements fairly high, whereas in the existing state of agriculture the amount of money available for the improvement of buildings is limited, it is gratifying that the adjustment of the byelaws has been carried through so harmoniously. For example, although the statute requires that the adoption of dairy byelaws must be advertised, and though a statement is made in each