asked the Minister for Health if he has seen and will make available to members details of the meat content of sausages analysed by the Public Analyst upon which the Dublin City Medical Officer for Health recently commented unfavourably.
8.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Meat Content of Sausages.
7.
asked the Minister for Health if he will state the names and number of the brands of sausages examined by the Public Analyst, the inadequate meat content of which was recently adversely commented on by the Dublin City Medical Officer for Health.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take questions 7 and 8 together.
Reports by Public Analysts on the meat content of sausages or the names and number of the brands, or on other foods, examined by them in pursuance of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts are not furnished to my Department, but when an article is found on analysis to be non-genuine, whether by reason of adulteration, contamination or inferior quality, a certificate to that effect is furnished by the Public Analyst to the local authority concerned.
I would point out that the enforcement of the Acts is a matter for local authorities and that they are empowered to take proceedings under the Acts in respect of any sample of food certified by the Public Analyst for their area to be non-genuine, whether or not a statutory standard for that particular class of food has been prescribed. It is a matter for the Court to decide in each case whether an offence under the Acts has been committed.
9.
asked the Minister for Health whether with regard to his statement in the Dáil on the 25th February, 1960 that it would be quite impossible for any person to determine what is the nutritive content of any particular sausage the findings of the National Nutrition Surveys are rendered inaccurate or are invalidated by such a limitation.
My statement was with reference to the question put to me by Deputy Cosgrave regarding the meat content of sausages. Different kinds of meat and different cuts of the same meat vary in their nutritive value and there is no known method of determining the proportions of pork or beef and other meats in a sausage nor is it possible to distinguish the particular cuts of meat used therein.
It is, of course, possible to estimate the amount of protein, carbohydrate, fat, etc., in sausages, and reports of investigations, such as the National Nutrition Survey, are based on the amounts of the various nutrients (protein, carbohydrate, fat, etc.) as ascertained after representative sampling so that any deviation in a particular case from the average is of no significance and in no way renders inaccurate or invalidates the findings.