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42
SECTION F.
INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION
OF FOOD.
General.
This work has been pursued with vigour and there is undoubtedly
a considerable all-round improvement in the standard of hygiene as
compared with the immediate post-war years, not only in the premises
but also in the methods adopted for protecting and handling food.
The lectures and film shows given to food handlers and the routine
personal discussions with managers and proprietors on the requirements
of the Council's Clean Food Byelaws have had a beneficial
effect, but I still think the real solution to this problem lies in the
teaching of hygienic principles of practice while the child is at school.
The hygienic handling of food is the real controlling factor in
the prevention of food poisoning and a heavy responsibility is placed
on the persons engaged in this work. It is, therefore, only right that
they should be given an elementary knowledge of the dangers
involved, at an age when their minds are receptive and their personal
habits not too rigidly moulded.
FOOD AND DRUGS ACT, 1938.
Food Sampling.
One hundred and ninety-five samples of food and drugs were
taken for analysis, forty-four of which were formal. Seventeen
samples, all informal, were found to be inferior or adulterated.
It is the practice of the department to concentrate as much as
possible on the sampling of articles which are manufactured within
the Urban District and for which there is a prescribed food standard,
the principle being that if this is done in all areas, a comprehensive
check is made and the duplication of sampling on a national scale
is reduced to a minimum.