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267
[1909
Shops, Stalls, &-e., Inspection of.—This includes the inspection of butchers' shops,
fish shops, fruit shops, sausage factories, and other premises where foodstuffs are sold or prepared
for sale, as well as stalls, barrows, &c., from which perishable foods are sold.
The approximate number of established traders within the Borough is as follows,
viz.:—
Butchers, provision dealers, etc, 247; fishmongers and fish fryers, 103; fruiterers
and gieengrocers, 215; 9 premises where foodstuffs are deposited for preparation of sale
(sausage factories, etc.), where no retail business is transacted, and also some 6 meat, etc.,
stalls, the same number of fish stalls and barrows, and about 30 greengrocer and fruiterer's
stalls and barrows, but the number of itinerant traders fluctuates considerably, according to
different seasons of the year and other varying conditions.
To these a total of 11,093 visits have been recorded during the year, in addition to
those of my colleagues the District Inspectors, who are each engaged fortnightly on Saturday
evenings, and one on each Sunday morning throughout the year, on market inspections, but
of which I have no proper record.
The quality of the foods and their condition of soundness generally has been on
the whole very satisfactory. Only 11 seizures were made under the Unsound Food Clauses of
the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and in 9 of these the Public Health Committee
ordered legal proceedings to be taken, which resulted in a total of .£40 16s. 6d. fines and costs.
In the previous year 12 summonses were taken out under the same Clause, resulting
in a total of £'A7 18s. 6d. fines and costs.
The particulars of each seizure, with the ultimate decision thereon, will be found in
the second table "B" of this report, where also will be found particulars of the various
surrenders of unsound foods.
By a perusal of this table it will be seen that again the bulk of the unsound foods
dealt with was due to decomposition or some circumstances of which the respective traders
could have had no knowledge when the food originally came into their possession. In other
words, there is no evidence forthcoming of traders within the Borough dealing in foodstuffs
of doubtful repute, which is some proof of the effectiveness of constant special supervision
thereof, and this is supported by the fact that the number of cases in which the attention of your
inspector is solicited where doubt exists as to the soundness, appears to be still on the
increase amongst all classes of traders.
The amount of unsound foods actually dealt with during the year falls considerably
short of that of the previous year, but a comparison will show that the principal difference
related to a very considerable quantity of unsound tinned goods which were destroyed in the
former year from premises which have been unoccupied during the year now under
consideration.