FOOD POISONING, POLICY AND POLITICS Corned Beef and Typhoid in Britain in the 1960s The problem of food contamination and poisoning is currently one of vigor- ous debate, highlighted since the 1980s by numerous outbreaks and scares, involving salmonella in eggs, listeria in cheese, links between vCJD and BSE, and E. Coli 0157 in cooked meats. There have also been episodes involving chemical contaminants, such as the recent Sudan I affair. These all raise complex problems regarding food safety monitoring, and the identification, withdrawal and disposal of suspect food. Yet, as this book shows, many of the issues involved were important as early as the 1960s, when there were four typhoid outbreaks in Britain, traced to contaminated corned beef imported from Argentina. Based upon extensive research, this book analyses the typhoid outbreaks and their aftermath, looking at the roles of politicians, officials, health professionals, business interests, the media and the public. It also considers the difficult issue of weighing food safety against international trade and other business and economic interests; conflicts between government departments; rivalry between professionals; the effects upon and influence of victims and local communities; and the conduct of and responses to an official enquiry. Overall, the 1960s corned beef and typhoid episode offers generic lessons regarding food policy making, adding historical perspectives to contemporary debates. David F. Smith is a lecturer in the history of medicine, Aberdeen University. He is editor of Nutrition in Britain: Science, Scientists and Politics in the Twentieth Century (Routledge, 1997) and joint-editor (with Jim Phillips) of Food, Science, Policy and Regulation in the Twentieth Century: International and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge, 2000). H. Lesley Diack is now a lecturer in Elearning, School of Pharmacy, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. T. Hugh Pennington was professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University until his retirement in 2003. He is author of When Food Kills: BSE, E. Coli, and Disaster Science (Oxford University Press, 2003). Elizabeth M. Russell was professor of social medicine at Aberdeen University until she retired in 2001. FOOD POISONING, POLICY AND POLITICS Corned Beef and Typhoid in Britain in the 1960s David F. Smith and H. Lesley Diack with T. Hugh Pennington and Elizabeth M. Russell THE BOYDELL PRESS © David F. Smith, H. Lesley Diack, T. Hugh Pennington and Elizabeth M. Russell 2005 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of David F. Smith, H. Lesley Diack, T. Hugh Pennington and Elizabeth M. Russell to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2005 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge ISBN 1 84383 138 4 The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith, David F., 1954– Food poisoning, policy, and politics : corned beef and typhoid in Britain in the 1960s / David F. Smith and H. Lesley Diack with T. Hugh Pennington and Elizabeth M. Russell. p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Study of the 1963/4 typhoid outbreak, highlighting issues and debates which are strikingly relevant today”—Provided by publisher. ISBN 1-84383-138-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Typhoid fever—Great Britain—Epidemiology. 2. Food poisoning— Great Britain. 3. Corned beef—Great Britain. 4. Food contamination— Government policy—Great Britain. [DNLM: 1. Salmonella Food Poisoning—history—Great Britain. 2. Typhoid Fever—history—Great Britain. 3. Food Inspection—history—Great Britain. 4. Food Preservation—history—Great Britain. 5. Health Policy—Great Britain. 6. Meat—poisoning—Great Britain. ] I. Diack, H. Lesley. II. Title. RA644.T8S54 2005 614.5’112’0941—dc22 2005001771 This publication is printed on acid-free paper Typeset by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Contents List of illustrations vi Preface and acknowledgements vii Abbreviations used in text xii Abbreviations used in footnotes xiii 1 The earlier history of typhoid and food poisoning 1 2 The 1963 corned beef-associated typhoid outbreaks in Harlow, South Shields and Bedford 38 3 The Aberdeen typhoid outbreak 58 4 The medical officer of health, the media and the public in the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak 96 5 Ministers, officials and the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak 127 6 The Milne Committee of Enquiry 158 7 The recommendation on the inspection of overseas meat plants: the roles of existing policy agendas, and interdepartmental and inter-professional tensions 199 8 The disposal of suspect canned meat: the priority of politics over technical advice 220 9 British action to encourage improvements in Argentine meat hygiene, 1964 to 1969 253 10 Summary and conclusions, and food safety since 1964 287 Appendix: Recommendations of the Milne Committee 310 Bibliography 312 Index 321 v Illustrations Tables 3.1 Number of patients involved in the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak 70 3.2 Age and sex of confirmed patients 78 6.1 Evidence to the Milne Committee 159 Figures 2.1 Corned beef consumption in Britain, 1962 to 1969 53 3.1 Confirmed and suspected cases of typhoid in hospital during the Aberdeen outbreak 70 3.2 Typhoid investigations at the City Hospital laboratory, Aberdeen, May to December 1964 74 10.1 Decision making on the Milne Committee recommendation for medical involvement in overseas meat inspection 296 10.2 Simplified schematic representation of food safety policy making in the 1960s 296 vi Preface and acknowledgements In May 1964 a typhoid outbreak began in Aberdeen, Scotland which, within a few weeks, led to the hospitalisation of over 500 people. A committee of inquiry appointed during the outbreak and which reported in December concluded that the infection had arisen from canned corned beef that had become contaminated by unchlorinated cooling water during the canning process at a factory in Argentina. Three smaller outbreaks in England during 1963 had been explained in the same way. In contrast to the 1963 outbreaks, the Aberdeen outbreak was very well publicised throughout and beyond the UK, in newspapers, and via radio and television news reports. The incident became notorious in the history of food safety and food poisoning, and is remembered vividly by Aberdonians who lived through it. This book investigates the four corned beef-associated typhoid outbreaks and sets them in the context of the long-term history of typhoid and food poisoning. The policy-making processes surrounding the outbreaks are explored, including the circumstances that allowed the Aberdeen outbreak to happen following the outbreaks in England, the political handling of the Aberdeen outbreak, the shaping of the report of the committee of inquiry, and the implementation of its findings. There are important international dimen- sions concerning the hygienic control of Argentine meat and meat products, while local dimensions include the role of the health services, especially the medical officer of health, and the experiences of patients and Aberdeen’s population. The interactions between and within government departments, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), the Ministry of Health and the Scottish Office are analysed, as well as the interactions between the government departments and local actors. In the final chapter, a way of conceptualising the complex processes of food policy making and implementation during the 1960s is presented. In view of recent widespread interest in food poisoning and food safety, the analysis presented in this book is not merely of historical interest. Recently, however, there have been some profound changes in the food safety regimes in the UK and Europe. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) was created in 1999, and the European Food Safety Authority came into being in 2002. The FSA took over many of the food safety responsibilities of MAFF, and MAFF was subsequently abolished and replaced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), after the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak of 2001. vii PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The recent reforms of the food safety system were stimulated by a series of problems which arose during and since the 1980s, especially the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) débâcle, and the E. coli 0157 outbreaks. The interest of the press, public and politicians in food-poisoning incidents became intense, and food safety became an election issue in 1997, leading to New Labour’s manifesto promises which took shape with the formation of the FSA. The major objective was restoring the trust of the public in the gov- ernment’s food safety machinery, and the new watchword was ‘openness’, the implementation of which has been facilitated by the rise of the internet. There are some senses in which much has now changed since the 1960s, and yet much also remains the same. The essential actors involved