View report page

90
Sweetmeat Makers.—We have in Finsbury eleven manufacturers
or makers of sweetmeats. One or two of these are large
firms with extensive premises, and whose produce has a world-wide
market. Seven or eight of them, on the other hand, are in a small
way of business, and naturally require more supervision from us.
They supply local shops. In one of the Central Districts of Finsbury
there are some 60 shops selling sweetmeats, but in only three cases
do the vendors actually make sweets. These workshops have been
carefully inspected, and various recommendations made for the
protection of the produce from contamination.
Food Stalls.—In Chapel Street, Exmouth Street and Whitecross
Street there is carried on a considerable food trade from stalls.
These are regularly inspected at irregular periods every week,
including Sundays and Saturday nights. A number of seizures or
confiscations of diseased or unsound food have been made during
1902, and in some cases prosecution has followed. One of the most
difficult foods to inspect is shell-fish, and from time to time information
reaches the Department of illness attributed to the consumption
of shell-fish. A number of enquiries have been made in such cases,
and sometimes apparently clear evidence is forthcoming incriminating
the shell-fish. These are generally obtained from Billingsgate or
some near sea-side town. In some cases undoubtedly shell-fish
fattened at sewage outfalls become contaminated and poisonous.
In other cases the contamination is derived from their storage.
Hawkers and stall-holders frequently keep their little stock of shellfish
in dirty buckets in dirty yards, and in this way it is possible
that they may become polluted.
THE MILK SUPPLY.
Duking the present year we have made enquiries respecting the
source of the milk sold in Finsbury. In a general way, it may
be said, that vendors have three modes of obtaining milk. First,
some 185 milk-sellers in Finsbury obtain their supply through milk
contractors, who deal with more than a thousand country farms.
There are 14 such wholesale contractors trading in the Borough.
Secondly, there are some 50 milk sellers who obtain their milk
through other milk sellers in the Borough from country farms.