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103
Because of deficiencies and ambiguities. Section 13 of the Food
and Drugs Act, 1938 and the Model Bye-Laws were of necessity
replaced by the Food Hygiene Regulations, 1955, made under the
new Act of 1955, and events have moved with such rapidity that
even these Regulations have been supplemented by those of 1960.
Although by no means perfect, the new legislation remedies
many of the defects of previous enactments, and for the first time
places a certain responsibility not only on management but on every
individual food handler. The provision of constant hot water,
wash handbasins and sinks with accompanying nail brushes and
towels, accommodation for clothing and personal effects, etc., are
all items among the long-awaited improvements and now first aid
equipment becomes obligatory.
It is evident that the powers necessary for the compulsory
registration of eating houses still constitutes a serious omission and
domestic animals are still not specifically banned from cafes and
food shops. Some reprehensible practices, such as the touching
of food when setting it out and the serving of meat sandwiches and
cakes by hand still exist and further, the pernicious habit of cooking
a joint today for tomorrow's meal persistently produces its yearly
crop of infections of staphylococcal origin.
Any clean food campaign would be incomplete without public
support and, logically, this support must be cultivated at an early
age. Children are very impressionable and receptive to information
which is given in school time, especially if it provides a break from
their normal routine. Suitably schooled children, on reaching adult
age will then demand from the caterers and shop-keepers a higher
standard of hygiene, and it is here that the foundations of success lie.
Legislation.—Of the new legislation introduced in the current
year concerning food, the following enactments and their associated
orders and regulations were considered the more important.
The Milk (Special Designation) Regulations, 1960.—These
regulations, operative from the 1st October of the current
year, replaced and consolidated, with amendments, The Milk
(Special Designation) (Raw Milk) Regulations, 1949-1954 and
the Milk (Special Designation) (Pasteurised and Sterilised Milk)
Regulations, 1949-1953. The principal changes are that dealers'
licences granted by the Authority for the area within which the
premises are situated, will now permit the sale of milk in any
district, and will last for a period of five years. A dealers' (prepacked
milk licence) has been introduced authorising a single form
of licence enabling the use of any or all of the appropriate special