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- 39 -
FOOD HYGIENE
Steady progress continues to be made in the field of clean food
handling and its attendant practices. it may well be deemed that the
provision of well-constructed kitchens, store rooms, refrigeration
plant and adequate display coverings automatically ensures reasonable
hygienic standards, but it remains constantly necessary to allow for
human failings, and it is essential to maintain unceasing propaganda
and vigilance so that foodstuffs are always fresh and of the quality
demanded by the purchaser. It is fortunate that the present-day
shopkeeper is, generally speaking, very co-operative as well as
being aware of his responsibility to the general public. On the
subject of service great difficulty arises from the fact that employees
at catering premises are constantly changing. It has to be regretfully
recorded that a not insignificant proportion of persons so employed
possess widely differing views as to efficiency in the carrying out
of their duties. It must also be admitted that slackness is all too
often fostered by customers who although appreciating that the service
they receive may, on occasions, be slipshod, fail to remonstrate when
suffering at the hands of food handlers. Unless they can be relied upon
to be consistent in their interpretation of clean food-handling rules they
must be prepared to accept some measure of responsibility for nonobservance.
Whilst they fail to display an attitude of public-spiritedness
they are making the task of public health officers unnecessarily arduous.
Customers are always encouraged to ventilate their grievances at the
Public Health Department to ensure that improvements are speedily effected.
They should most certainly report any instances of smoking or spitting
during the course of sales, and can themselves show concern for the aims
of hygiene by refraining from taking pets with them on shopping expeditions.
The local authority also experiences much investigation and enquiry
when it is proposed to adapt premises which are, for example, to be used
as a snack-bar when the accommodation was previously used for confectionery.
In both cases the handling of consumable goods arises, but the alterations
and adaptations are very often of no mean nature. In arriving at providing
adequate facilities one has to bear in mind that the operator may be called
upon to bear expenditure which may be more than was anticipated. At the
same time it will be duly appreciated that a reasonable living has to be
secured from the business, and it is reasonable to expect that completion
of the required works must be spread over a little time. It is not unknown
that once premises have been thoroughly adapted, the operator may not proceed,
and an application may be received from another person or persons in
connection with a very different type of catering, a procedure which leads
to considerable work on the part of the authority's officers. What may
appear to be unnecessary is, of course, all part of the continuance of clean
food handling.