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49
Ice-Creams.
The sale of ice-creams has again claimed the attention of
the Public Health Committee during the past year, and after
hearing a report from me on the subject the Committee came
to the conclusion that it was urgent and necessary that the
vendors of ice-cream should be registered.
In a paper recently read before the Society of Medical
Officers of Health the author visited the shop of a well-known
confectioner and bought a strawberry ice-cream. The icecream
contained from 8,000,000 to 14,280,000 bacteria per
cubic centimetre (ordinary drinking water generally contains
about 100 bacteria per cubic centimetre) and among the same
the " Bacillus Coli," a normal inhabitant of the bowels of men
and animals.
Attention has also lately been called to the coloured hot
drinks which are retailed at small shops and street stalls in
winter, and which are sold chiefly to children. A sample
recently analysed showed that the colouring matter was due
to an aniline dye, and the drink contained a quantity of fusel
oil and other injurious substances in solution.
Sale of Preserved Green Peas.
The attention of the Public Health Committee of the Vestry
was also called to this subject—but they were of opinion that
no action was called for on the part of the Vestry.
With regard to this subject a Parliamentary Committee on
"Food Products Adulteration," state that tinned peas are
generally coloured with Sulphate of Copper, and while there
is reason to think that peas so coloured have in some cases
proved injurious to health it has been urged as desirable that a
limit to the use of this colouring agent should be fixed.
Select Committee on " Food Products Adulteration."
The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the working
of the Margarine Act, 1887, and the Sale of Food and Drugs
Act, 1875, and any Acts amending the same, and report
whether any, and if so, what Amendments of the Law relating
to Adulteration are in their opinion desirable ; report that:—
While the evidence shows that the law in relation to food
adulteration needs amendment in some important points, it is
satisfactory to your Committee to have ground for stating that
where the Acts have been well administered they have been most
beneficial in diminishing adulteration offences. Forms of adulteration
which were common prior to the passing of the Sale of Food
and Drugs Act, 1875, such as the introduction of alum into bread,
and the colouring of confectionery with poisonous material, have
now almost entirely disappeared.
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