London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Chelsea 1962
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1962
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INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD
A record is kept by means of a register of all premises connected
with the manufacture, storage and sale of food. The number of premises
remains reasonably static, the only variations during the year worthy
of mention were the reduction of premises retailing milk from 59 to 55,
and of general provision shops not selling milk where the reduction is
from 22 to 16. These reductions are all in respect of small traders,
which is indicative of the present trend to shop at large stores and
Supermarkets., The other variation is an upward trend in the number of
catering establishments of various types, the increase being from 193 to
218.
The following table classifies the types of food premises, all of which are subject to regular routine inspectiont:-
| Bakehouses | 7 |
| Butchers | 27 |
| Horse-flesh butcher | 1 |
| Food Factories (flour-mills, bottling-stores) | 5 |
| Milk Retailers (including dairies) | 55 |
| General Provision Merchants (not selling milk) | 16 |
| Fruit and vegetable retailers | 26 |
| Hotels and Public Houses, Clubs, Restaurants,) Dining Rooms, Canteens and miscellaneous) catering establishments) | 218 |
| Fried fish premises | 2 |
| Wet fish retailers | 8 |
| Miscellaneous premises (bread and cake shops, sweets and confectionery shops, ice-cream stores) | 52 |
Ice-Cream Premises
Section 16 (l) (a) of the Food and Drugs Act, 1955, provides for
the registration of premises used for the sale, manufacture, and storage
for sale of ice-cream. At the end of the year the premises so registered
numbered 109 a drop of 7 registrations over the year.
Only one manufacturing premise exists in the Borough, this being
a catering establishment; there is one large depot which is a holding
unit only for a large manufacturer with premises outside the Borough,
and apart from restaurants making use of loose ice-cream in connection
with the service of meals there are only two retailers of loose icecream.
It is the policy of the Public Health Inspectors to encourage
as far as possible the sale of only pre-packed ice-cream.
There are no soft ice-cream making machines sited in Chelsea,
but these are now appearing on the vehicles of itinerant traders, and
in view of the greater possibility of contamination of this form of
ice-cream careful observation is kept on these traders and the number
of samples taken in this field will be considerably increased in 1963.