174
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
'Hand to Mouth' were issued, and a film strip about the rela- tion between food handling and public health was shown and explained to over 8,000 workers in the trade.
Food Inspection. Locally-recruited inspectors continued to be sent to the United Kingdom for training in Meat and Food Inspection, and it became possible to form a small food unit from the returned qualified personnel, the depend- ence of the Colony on imported foodstuffs, together with an important export trade in Chinese delicacies, necessitat- ing this step. Most of the work has been preparatory, e.g. investigations of local food practices and surveys of imported items, but, with the expansion of this branch, a greater measure of protection will be afforded to the food supply of the Colony.
Slaughterhouses. The slaughter of animals for human consumption is, in urban areas, restricted to the Government slaughterhouses in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong and Ma Tau Kok, Kowloon. During the year 700,000 pigs, 80,000 cattle and 10,000 sheep and goats were slaughtered in these two urban slaughterhouses.
The premises are old and cramped and their inadequacies mean that it is extremely difficult to maintain an acceptable standard either of hygiene or of inspection. As many inspectors as can work in the space available are employed, but lack of space prevents full inspection. Since the war planning for new abattoirs has been going on. Earlier proposals for a single abattoir on the Island to serve the whole urban area were, during the year, changed to provide for an abattoir on each side of the harbour.
As a preparation for the new abattoirs a pilot by-products plant is operating at Kennedy Town. About 1,000 tons of materials, not including blood, were processed during the year, the yield being 111 tons of meat and bone meal, 148 tons of inedible fat and one ton of hoof and horn meal.
Meat and bone meal is still insufficient to meet the demand from poultry raisers and is sold by quota at a fixed price