§ 29. Mr. WILLIAM NICHOLSONasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether the meat recently dispatched to Petersfield by the London Meat Distribution Committee, and seized by the sanitary inspector as unfit for human consumption, had been in cold storage since 10th August, 1914; and whether meat which has been as long in cold storage is now being issued to the public or whether the meat in question had been overlooked owing to mismanagement on the part of the Department?
§ Mr. CLYNESThe statement made to the hon. Member on 27th May to the effect that some meat recently dispatched to Petersfield had been in cold storage since 10th August, 1914, appears to have been based on insufficient evidence. I am now informed that the meat in question only reached this country in March, 1918, and that no imported meat is now being issued to the public which arrived before the 1395 beginning of the year. I may add that every effort is being made to improve the quality of imported meat, which has certainly been Found to be inferior in several recent instances.
§ 30. Mr. NICHOLSONasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether, in view of the complaints of bad meat from cold storage being issued in rural districts, he will consider the advisability of allowing the meat produced in the neighbourhood to be used in those districts instead of taking the meat for distribution to other centres and, in return, supplying them with refrigerated meat from London, and at the same time reduce the cost and transport by railway?
§ Mr. CLYNESThe principle followed by the Food Controller in organising the present system of meat distribution has been to avoid unnecessary transport by arranging that home-killed meat shall be consumed in the district in which it is produced, as far as is consistent with the reasonable claims of non-producing areas. It is still necessary, however, at the present time to make up any deficiencies in rural districts by supplying frozen meat, in order that the live stock may put on more meat during a further period of grazing.
§ 50. Mr. NICHOLSONasked the President of the Local Government Board whether the attention of the Board's medical advisers has been called to the fact that meat issued by the Food Controller in the Petersfield district had been in cold storage for more than three and a half years; whether they are aware that the meat in question was seized by the sanitary inspector as not fit for human consumption; and whether he can state if, in their opinion, there is any danger to the public in issuing for human consumption meat that has been in cold storage for so long a period?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Stephen Walsh)I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply already given to him by my right hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Food. I am advised that preservation of meat by cold storage, even for prolonged periods, when carried out under proper conditions, does not in itself render the meat unwholesome.