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FOOD AND DRUGS ADULTERATION.
During the past thirty years, the frequent introduction of
new legislation has assisted the Public Health Department in its
unremitting efforts to effect improvements in the conditions
under which food and drugs are prepared and sold, with the
result that many striking changes have taken place.
The trend to-day is for manufacturers and suppliers of
foodstuffs to eliminate as much as possible the manual handling
of their products. This has helped to produce a cleaner, more
wholesome and less easily adulterated commodity.
For example, the changes that have taken place in the milk
trade with consequent improvement in both purity and quality,
have been revolutionary.
In 1922 it was the practice for milkmen in the Borough to
receive milk in bulk. A churn was placed on a milk-float or
barrow and taken on the “round”; customers being served
from a hand-can which was filled from the churn in the public
thoroughfare. Some customers had their milk poured into jugs
which were not infrequently left on the doorstep overnight;
others made use of a milk-can, fitted with a hinged lid. This
was one of the earliest types of milk container, and was later
replaced by the glass bottle and waxed cardboard carton (the
latter has fallen into disuse for economic reasons). The milkfloat
with churn, hand-can, counter-pan and other unhygienic
methods of milk distribution, have now been entirely eliminated
in Camberwell.
Most milk is bottled at the pasteurising plants or, in the
case of raw designated milk, on the farms, and there are few
milkmen in the Borough still bottling milk on their premises.
Under the provisions of the Milk and Dairies Order, 1949, from
1st October, 1954, all milk will be bottled at the pasteurising
plants.
Considerable improvements have also been effected in controlling
the quality of food products. Statutory standards