Food safety, the manner it was manufactured, stored, prepared and sold was never out of the news. Despite crude guidelines and basic regulations enforced in law, purveyors of every range of food were endlessly reported with crimes and methods to turn the strongest stomachs.
The law finally caught up with a person called White, potted meat manufacturer, in the early 1880’s:
“A potted-meat manufacturer, name White, was charged before the Magistrates at Aston, Birmingham, yesterday, with being in possession of meat unfit for food. On the 13th October an inspector seized upon the defendant’s premises a large quantity of pork-rind, which was bad. The defendant removed to another street, and the summons could not be served on him until lately, when there was discovered at his new premises a quantity of bad meat. The was sentenced to 6 months’ hard labour, without the option of a fine.”
Ian Waugh
Old British News
