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Where inspection chambers to drains exist in kitchens they should be
provided with double covers (one cover below another), or be so arranged that
the covers cannot become unsealed by being walked on, &c.
Separate lavatory basin accommodation should be provided outside the
kitchen for both sexes, where practicable, for use of employes.
Where lift shafts are used in connection with kitchens they should be
cleansed from time to time.
In a properly arranged kitchen many other things suggest themselves, such
as separate scullery and cold (ice) larder, separate rooms for cooked and
uncooked foods, fish larder, vegetable store, dry goods store, plate room,
saucepan room, &c., &c., but these conditions do not obtain at many kitchens
in the City.
It is almost unnecessary to add that kitchens should be adequately
ventilated and that the temperature should not exceed 80° Fahr. Many
persons appear to imagine the cooking can only be carried on in an extremely
hot kitchen, but this is a wrong impression. The lack of proper provision
for keeping food hot whilst being served up often results in the temperature
being kept unduly high, the windows being closed to prevent the rapid
cooling of the dishes.
During the year many of the kitchens have been re-visited, and in future
the whole of them will be re-inspected periodically.
It is found that the businesses are constantly changing hands, and that the
kitchen arrangements are an ever-varying quantity. Gas stoves are frequently
added, without any provision being made for carrying off the fumes, the watercloset
accommodation for the sexes has to be re-adjusted and the walls and
ceilings of the kitchen soon get dirty. These and many other points need
constant and vigilant attention to ensure a decent standard being maintained.
Special attention is now being paid to the storage of food, and suggestions
from my Department are often appreciated and acted upon.
The meat and food deposited for sale in restaurants is examined, but only
in one instance was it necessary to take action. In the case mentioned several
joints of meat, &c., were seized and taken before a Magistrate in the usual way,
but no prosecution resulted, there being good grounds to believe that the meat
was not intended for the food of man.
During the year 513 re-inspections of kitchens were made.
The Women Inspectors will in future attend to all kitchens where women
only are employed, and arrangements have been made whereby over-lapping
will be avoided on the part of the Workshop and Women Inspectors in respect
of the kitchens where male and female labour is employed.