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83
The General Powers Act of 1908 has been found of considerable
value in Hampstead in enabling the Sanitary Authority to require a
reasonable standard of sanitation in places where food is prepared and
sold, but it is chiefly of value in so far as it deals with structural conditions.
There is still need for further powers to regulate the daily
ordering of these places in order to secure a proper standard of cleanliness.
Unfortunately, many of the persons engaged in the preparation of
food have little appreciation of the importance of scrupulous cleanliness
in their work, and not infrequently there is a striking contrast between
the place where the food is shown to the public for sale and the place
where it is prepared for sale. Slaughterhouses are not only regulated
by a code of by-laws, but are also subject to annual licensing, and an
important advance in sanitation would be secured if similar provisions
were made to apply to bakehouses, dairies, restaurant kitchens, and other
food premises. Modern research in sanitary science, based on the
information furnished by a long and rapidly increasing series of food
outbreaks in various parts of the country, tends to emphasize more and
more the importance of the food factor in disease and the necessity for
the stringent regulation of places where food is prepared for human
consumption.
Inspection of Premises where Food is Prepared or Stored (other
than Bakehouses, Milk Shops, Eating Houses and Slaughterhouses).

731 inspections were made of these premises during the year and
155 notices were served.