§ SIR W. HART DYKE (Kent, Dartford)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that the sale of vegetables or fruit to be eaten uncooked has been prohibited in France when they are grown upon sewage farms; whether the attention of any of the Board's inspectors has been called to the importation of such fruit and vegetables from France; and if he will consider the advisability of taking steps to afford some greater security to the English consumer who may purchase them.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) I have not received any representations as to the importation from France of fruit and vegetables grown upon sewage farms, and it appears to me that there would be considerable practical difficulty in identifying any produce so grown. I am advised that, speaking generally, vegetables and fruit grown upon sewage farms would not be unfit for food, though uncooked, unless they had been allowed to be in contact with the sewage; and I understand that one of the model regulations issued in France last year would forbid the disposal of matters from cess- 252 pools or sewers on land on the surface of which are cultivated vegetables and fruit intended to be eaten uncooked.