London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Dagenham 1930
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Dagenham]
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INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD.
(a) Milk Supply.
There are 26 retailers of milk in the district, the following being the number of premises from which the various classes of milk are retailed:—
| Ungraded Milk | 23 |
| "Grade A " Milk | 1 |
| "Grade A " Pasteurised Milk | 3 |
| Certified Milk | 3 |
| Pasteurised Milk | 8 |
| Sterilised Milk | 5 |
The number of Company Distributing Centres is 9.
During the year three businesses changed hands through the
buying out of smaller concerns by one of the larger. In addition
four retailers were registered for the first time.
Milk Sampling.
During the year, 125 samples of milk were analysed ; the same system of sampling was continued. The following table shows the results of these analyses, divided into those produced on a small scale and those distributed by large companies:—
| No. of Bacteria perc.c. in thousands. | Small Dealers | Larce Scale | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local producc. | Not local. | Satisfactory | NOT | |||
| Satisfactory. | NOT | Satisfactory. | NOT | |||
| Under 30 | — | 8 | — | 17 | — | |
| 30-100 | 1 | 24 | 1 | 12 | 1 | |
| 100—200 | 4 | — | 12 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 200—500 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | — | 4 |
| Over 500 | — | — | 7 | — | 4 | |
| 17 | 2 | 46 | 16 | 32 | 12 | |
These figures again show that, of the milk ol the small producer,
a percentage, namely, 10% of milks comply with the stand aid
Of Certified Milk and 50% had counts below that permitted for
Grade "A" Milk.
There are many advocates of wholesale pasteurisation of milk,
chiefly with the object of reducing tuberculous infection of early
childhood. Localised outbreaks of typhoid fever or septic sore
throat and cases of abortus fever all increase the list of converts.