ADEQUATE FISH INSPECTION: A MEANS TO 



BETTER FISH FOR THE CONSUMER AND 



TO INCREASED FISH FOOD CONSUMPTION 



By Arthur L. Millett 

 State Inspector of Fish, Boston, Mass. 



It is elemental that good food preserves and protects 

 the health of a nation. 



It is fundamental that the better the condition of a 

 food staple the more of that staple will be consumed. 



It is a lamentable fact that the consumption of fish in 

 the United States and Canada is pitiably low as compared 

 with England and several other European nations, and 

 this in spite of the fact that the fishing resources of the 

 first two named countries are unrivaled in the world. 



Several reasons have been presented for this state 

 of afifairs. Inadequate and slow transportation and poor 

 handling of catch are two most frequently brought for- 

 ward, but the main reason has been generally overlooked 

 — the supplying of only good fish to the consumer. 



If the same care were taken with the marketing of 

 fish food as with beef and canned products, the yield of 

 our farms of the sea, lake and river would now be vying 

 for supremacy with land food commodities. Beef and 

 canned vegetable products are subjected to stringent in- 

 spection, and the results from the standpoints of health 

 and increased and increasing consumption are apparent 

 to all. If inspection has done this for beef and canned 

 goods, why cannot a proportionate measure of good 

 results be thus obtained for fresh and salt fish foods? It 

 is the contention of this paper that it can. 



CANNOT WORK MIRACLES 



Fish cannot come out of cold storage in any better con- 

 dition than it is put in. The sudden cold blast and freez- 



