OFFICIAL INSPECTIONS 39. 85 



were evidently misbranded. The sale was stopped in Maine 

 but because of irregularities it was not practicable to prove 

 interstate shipment and no case was brought under the United 

 States law. 



SANITARY POOD. 



In order to call the special attention of dealers to the care 

 that the law requires them to exercise in handling food a red 

 slip that reads as follows is enclosed in this number of Official 

 Inspections : 



"Manufacturers and Dealers should take notice that food is 

 adulterated *if in the manufacture, sale, distribution, transporta- 

 tion, it is not at all times securely protected from filth, flies, 

 dust or other contamination, or other unclean, unhealthful or 

 unsanitaiy conditions.' 



This should be carefully read. The more it is studied the 

 broader will be found its application." 



Ignorance and carelessness are the chief factors that have to 

 be reckoned with in the enforcement of this part of the food 

 law. A dealer in meats while explaining to the. executive of 

 the law the very sanitary arrangement he had installed for the 

 display and sale of meat actually sat upon the meat block while 

 doing so! A certain restaurant keeper prides himself upon 

 making an attractive window display of his food. While the 

 writer was looking at this display a newspaperman came along 

 and remarked "Fine. Isn't it?" It did not appear so fine to 

 him after it was pointed out that the foods, most of them 

 cooked, were exposed to all the dust of the room and that an 

 attractive basket of doughnuts was so placed that every per- 

 son entering the shop must pass within a few inches of it and 

 that it was at such a height that if the person chanced to cough 

 while passing that some of the small particles of sputum must 

 inevitably fall upon the displayed food that would be eaten 

 without being sterilized by further cooking! Very rarely has 

 a report been made upon unsanitary exposure of food without 

 it coming as a surprise to the person concerned. 



While unrler the law the Director of the Station is empow- 

 ered to make uniform rules and regulations for carrying out its 

 provisions, he will not at present lay down specific instructions 

 that must be followed in order to meet this section. It is his 

 purpose, however, to see that its requirements are complied with. 



