REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE FRUIT INDUSTRY. 545 



however, would appear to exist in the case of jam; and the Committee, 

 therefore, recommend that every pot of jam made wholly or in part from 

 foreign fruit should have this fact clearly stated on the label. 



The Insufficient Inspection of Foreign Fruit. 



73. Many witnesses complained that much of the fruit and fruit pulp 

 imported from abroad arrived in bad condition, and urged that a great 

 deal more in the way of inspection was required. Of these, several seemed 

 to think that there was no system of public inspection at all, or, at least, 

 they were unaware of its existence. Mr. Templeton, for example, stated 

 that he had never heard of fruit being condemned at Glasgow, though 

 much of the imported fruit was bad ; while Mr. Black well, speaking of 

 foreign pulp, said that it was inspected by the wharfinger before it was 

 sent to the factory, but that he did not know that there was any Govern- 

 ment inspection. On the other hand, it is a matter of common know- 

 ledge that fruit, like other articles of food, is sometimes seized and 

 condemned by public officials as unfit for human consumption, and, 

 among the witnesses, Mr. E. Pink said that he had had visits from the 

 inspectors at his factory, and Mr. Idiens spoke of seizures which had 

 taken place in 1903 of Dutch and German Plums, in consequence of 

 which, he said, pulp was now sent instead of fruit, and that much of it 

 was bad and not inspected. Having regard to the importance of the 

 matter from the point of view both of the British fruit grower and the 

 public health, and to the uncertainty which appeared to prevail, the 

 Committee invited the Local Government Board (as being the Depart- 

 ment concerned with Public Health in England) to give them any infor- 

 mation which they might possess on the subject, and the correspondence 

 and memorandum forwarded by the Board are printed in the Appendix. 



74. From this memorandum it appears that the inspection of fruit 

 (and of other articles of food) is not undertaken by the Board itself, but 

 is dealt with by local authorities exclusively, acting through their medical 

 officers of health and inspectors of nuisances. The powers of these 

 officials, which are very considerable, are to be found in sections 116 to 

 119 of the Public Health Act, 1875, and section 47 of the Public Health 

 (London) Act, 1891. The Board has, by general orders issued in 1891, 

 drawn attention to the duties and powers of these officers, but has not 

 collected any statistics showing to what extent action has been taken. 

 The Committee, while anxious not to appear to criticise a Public Depart- 

 ment, feel that this is an unfortunate omission. The administration 

 being purely local, it may well be understcod that it varies greatly in 

 different districts, some local authorities acting vigorously and effectively, 

 others being lax in the discharge of their duty. But the Local Govern- 

 ment Board has no knowledge of what is taking place, and has no means 

 of discriminating between the action of different authorities. The Com- 

 mittee are also of opinion that something more than mere local action is 

 needed. Having regard to the great danger to public health arising from 

 unsound food, and to the fact that this danger is far more likely to arise 

 in the case of imported than in that of home-grown food, owing to the 

 length of time occupied in transit, the Committee hold that, in addition 



