[Report 1963] / Medical Officer of Health, St Albans City.

  • St. Albans (England). City Council.
Date:
1963
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1963] / Medical Officer of Health, St Albans City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It was obvious that this was not an ordinary bacteriological toxin or infective food-poisoning nor were the symptoms suggestive of any other metallic food-poisonings, although the incubation period was about right for these. Ky remark about the clinical symptoms at the time, was that it was typical of what happened after an injection of a powerful vaso-dilator. Investigations The school meal consisted of hamburgers, carrots, potatoes and gravy; with a dessert of rhubarb and custard. The whole of the staff of the school were interviewed and detailed questionnaires of the things they had eaten at the meal, and of any reactions, were compiled. It was also helpful that the people had sat down to this meal in three sittings, the canteen staff having the last meal in the series and they very bravely decided only to have the first course, to decide what had caused this reaction. It soon became obvious that the meat dish of the meal was the cause of the reaction. The meat was minced chuck steak, and it was the first time that meat had come from this particular butcher, as it was the first delivery under a new County Council School Meals contract. The meat was described by the canteen manageress as nice, pink and fresh looking. To this minced steak was added dried semolina, dried herbs, salt and pepper and onions. The semolina, dried herbs, salt and pepper were all from supplies which had been used previously without any trouble. The onions were the last of a large batch which had been used in previous meals without any ill effects. The point was specifically raised of the appearance of the onions, as to whether or not they had been daffodil bulbs etc., but the canteen staff were very confident that these were all onions. As is the routine procedure with the School Meals service, a sample of the complete meal had been retained by the Canteen Manageress. Samples of the hamburger were sent (a) for bacteriological investigation and (b) for chemical analysis, with the suggestion that the Analyst should look for a vaso-dilator. Later that day I discussed this outbreak with Dr. Bloss of the Ministry of Health and he was able to tell me of cases with similar symptoms in another town a month previously. The symptoms in these cases had been due to the presence of an excess amount of nicotinic acid on m.inced meat. A preparation sold under the trade name of 'Evened', and consisting of a mixture of nicotinic acid and ascorbic acid, had been added to the minced meat to help give the meat a good red colour. The meat in our cases had been supplied by a butcher in Middlesex and our colleagues there visited the premises of the butcher concerned, and at first the Manager denied the use of any preparation on the minced