INSPECTION OF BACON FACTORIES.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 July 1910, Page 3

INSPECTION OF BACON FACTORIES.

EXTENSION OF ACT QUESTED.The inspection of pigs was before tine lor Agriculture, Hon'. Thomas Mackenzie, yesterday after--1 loon. Tlio Dominion reports that til'.o deputation ? which represented, certain: bacon factories in tlio North Island, complained that, while some bacon factories were being well inspected ijj. .reg-aird to their bacon, a number of others were not being inspected. The deputation considered 11 ml, tbe Act should lio amended so tlwifc all bacon factories would be inspected. It was very unfair (hat tho bacon from inspected factories was worth no more to-day than bacon which had not been inspected. Thy .Minister: "How many are Setting pigs killed at abattoirs " Tho Deputation : Three or four." The .Minister: ""Well, there are' practically twenty without inspection." I M r Reakes : "Some of tiliiem pretty small ones.* Tho remarked that it would not be feasible to have an .inspector at small factories, to which the deputation, replied that it should bo sufficient for the inspector to attend tho small factories, say, once a week, as most of them only killed once or twice Weekly. The Minister said tili-at tho question was a very serious one, and the Department had tried various ways to meet it, tho most promising of which was the pasteurisation of skim milk and whey. Tho Department had held a good many quiet conferences with dairying a.ml farming people, and all were now working together to pasteurisers installed in the dairy factories (for (he sterilisation ol skim milk) as fast -as tlvey could. Through pasteurising tlve percentage of pigs condemned had been reduced in some instances to five per cent.

Mr Reakes gave an instance where the percentage condemned had been as high as one ibundred, and iii three or four mouths pasteurisation had reduced it to nil.