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116
SECTION G
Greenwich Guild of Hygiene
Since the inception of the Guild in 1950 to the end of 1952
some 96 food traders have applied for Certificates of Hygiene;
77 have been awarded including 12 during the past year. Not only
have certificate holders accomplished a satisfactory degree of hygiene
but by example have influenced their fellow-traders to do likewise.
Now that equipment is more readily available and building licences
no longer hinder necessary structural improvements, real progress
can be made. Already quite apart from the bare requirements of
Section 13, Food & Drugs Act, 1938, dealing with washing facilities,
ventilation, etc., many welcome additions are to be seen. Glass
counter-guards in most provision shops protect the food from
handling or being coughed upon by the less enlightened customer.
Glass lids to biscuit tins are becoming the rule. Clean white paper
is used for wrapping in place of the ubiquitous newspaper.
Refrigeration is almost universal. Even fruiterers and greengrocers
are keeping their wares beyond the risk of canine contamination.
Nevertheless in spite of all that is done to encourage the hygiene
equipping of shops and catering establishments and to impress the
food handler with the urgent necessity of hygiene practice, much
remains to be done to stamp out the unclean personal commissions
and omissions still common to this generation. The blowing into
paper bags in which food is to be placed ; failure of the food handler
to wash the hands after use of the toilet; smoking while serving or
otherwise handling food, and so forth. These and the many other
dangerous practices can form a focus of contamination likely to
infect the most robust constitution.
To remedy the unhygienic circumstances and habits of today is
a formidable task but a state nearing perfection could be achieved if
only our future food handlers, now school children, are inculcated
firstly with the rules of hygiene and secondly with a sense of duty
to apply them.
With this in mind a special invitation was sent to all school
teachers and student nurses to attend the Annual General Meeting
of the Greenwich Guild of Hygiene at which Councillor Mrs. L.
Hilldrith, Chairman of the Public Health Committee, presided.