[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Lanark County Council.

  • Lanarkshire (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Lanark County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Table No. 1 The total number of samples and specimens examined in the labora- tory during the year was:- Food and Drugs (Scotland) Act, 1956 1,470 Domestic Waters 301 Atmospheric Pollution:- Rain Gauges 67 Peroxide Instruments 120 Smoke Stains 811 998 Miscellaneous Samples Other Authorities:— 106 Daer Water Board 73 Lanarkshire Constabulary 219 Burgh of Biggar 14 The following is a precis of the four quarterly reports submitted to the County Council. The number of samples examined by me under the Food and Drugs (Scotland) Act, 1956 was 86 samples submitted formally and 1,383 infor- mally. 22 Formal Samples (25.6%) and 123 informal samples (8.9%) were adulterated or otherwise unsatisfactory. BABY FOOD. Three samples of Baby Food labelled “Beef Dinner, Lamb Dinner and “Vegetable and Lamb were received. Two of the samples stated they were suitable for babies or invalids. The Vegetable and Lamb made no claims to be suitable for invalids. All the labels had pictures of healthy, laughing babies. One sample claimed to be suitable for babies or invalids contained 35% of meat and conformed to the meat standard recommended by the Food Standards Committee in 1962. The other samples of Lamb Dinner contained only 24 per cent of meat; and the third sample described as Vegetable and Lamb contained only 3.0 per cent meat. I criticised two of the samples, one because it was much below the quality of the similar product made by the same company, and the other because I do not consider the presence of 3 per cent meat justified the printing of the word lamb on the label. When a prospective customer reads a label Vegetables and Lamb, they should, and usually do, appreciate that vegetables are the main ingredient and the proportion of lamb is smaller, but in my view they are entitled to expect something appreciably in excess of 3 per cent of meat. Finally, the nutritional value of such a preparation will be quite low. The total animal protein which would be available in this particular sample would contribute little to the body building requirements of an energetic and growing baby.