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The above Regulations are a most welcome addition to existing
Public Health legislation in relation to food, but there still
remains the absence of statutory orders to enable the Public
Health Authority to deal with the sale of foodstuffs, other than
meat, from stalls in street markets,or by hawkers.
The absence of any power to control the conduct of the sale
of articles of food which have been rendered liable to contamination
by animals, dust, surface drainage from the roadways, and
mud, etc., owing to the careless manner in which such foods are
stored and deposited for sale, has been forced on my attention
for some considerable time.
It used to be a common practice in the street markets to find
various articles of food, such as fruit, fish, vegetables, sweets,
etc.,stored on the roadway or under stalls without any regard to
protection from pollution, but at the present time it is satisfactory
to record that as a result of constant attention to this matter by
your Inspectors the majority of stall-holders now place their goods
on baskets or boxes sufficiently high above the footway, thus
reducing to a minimum the risk of contamination.
It would seem, therefore, that the time has arrived to go
even further than this, with a view of securing a general prohibition
of exposure on the street of meat, fruit, sweets and the
more important and readily contaminated articles of food, unless
adequate protective precautions are taken.
Bakehouses
There were 147 bakehouses on the register at the end of
1925. Of these two use power, and are therefore factories within
the meaning of the Factories and Workshops Act, 1901. 99 of
the bakehouses are above ground and 48 underground. 421
inspections were made by the Sanitary Inspectors and 21 notices
were served for the cleansing of walls and ceilings.
Ice Cream Premises.
The number of such premises in the Borough on the register
at the end of 1925 was 338. The trade is mainly regulated under
the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1902, which
makes it an offence to store ice cream in a sleeping room, or in a
shed or room in which there is an inlet or a drain. The Act also
provides that every itinerant vendor should exhibit on his barrow
the name and address of the person from whom the ice cream
has been obtained. Two samples of ice cream were submitted by
the Food and Drugs Inspector for bacteriological examination.
The reports showed that bacillus coli was present in 0.01 c.c. in
both samples, and that the number of organisms per c.c. was
100,000 and 1,300,000 respectively.
The Sanitary Inspectors made 681 visits, and 12 notices were
served.