FROZEN MEAT FOR CONTINENT

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1124, 11 May 1911, Page 8

FROZEN MEAT FOR CONTINENT

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD IDEA. In view of the efforts which are being made by the New Zealand,and Australian State Governments to secure the admission of frozen meat into Continental countries, interest attaches to a paper read by Mr. Gilbert Anderson before the Cold Storage and Ice Association in London. Mr. Anderson, in the course of his paper, pointed out Unit many Continental countries had laws bearing on meat inspection, and while these, remained in force the entry of refrigerated meat into these countries could only bo looked on crs experimental. Tho !«ws of France and Germany were so framed that refrigerated , meat, in the condition under which it has to be. handled, cannot enter those countries.. . The regulations are that the head, or greater part of it, the tongue, throat, liver, lungs, and heart have to bo left in their natural position. These conditions arc all right when applied to fresh meat killed on adjoining territory, but it is not fair that they should be enforced against refrigerated meat, which can only be properly frozen and handled if minus tho organs. As shippers of frozen meat can only send the carcass it is impossible for them to comply with the Continental law and conditions, and they must therefore fall back on guarantees that all. nie.it shipped is fully and carefully inspected under the most rigid ante-mortem and post-mortem examinations. Mr. Anderson therefore proposes that if an international moat standard should be established shippers would comply with tho conditions that all the refrigerated meat they tendered to any country should be properly .inspected, and this should be admitted as prinni facie evidence (hat it is sound and healthy. . The conditions of inspection which Mr. Anderson proposes include, that oil slaughterhouses should be licentKv'l by the Government, and only thoroughly sanitary slaughterhouses should receive a license; that inspectors must. be veterinary surgeons; that all animals must be inspected prior to and at the time of slaughter; that no meat can be exported unless in proper condition. • If such a standard is adopted refrigerated meat ought to be admitted into any country as n sound and healthy food.

The Cold Storage and lco Association decided to refer Mr. Anderson's proposal to the next, meeting of the Refrigeration Congress, to lip held in Paris towards the end of the year.