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can be obtained from the Environmental Health Service, which provides a
Monday to Friday daily service to County Hall, with collection points in
various parts of the Borough,
I am indebted to the Public Analyst, Mr. T. McLachlan, for the
following report:-
Annual Report of the Public Analyst, 1970.
During the year 1970,1,329 items of food and drugs were examined, Of
these 42 samples were taken formally,and 11,229 informally, while the
remaining 58 articles were submitted as the result of complaints showing
again how complaint-conscious the public is becomings The lack of understanding
between suppliers and consumers is to be regretted, though suppliers ought
to realise that it is in their own interests to obtain and to keep satisfied
customers.

A milk bottle with foreign matter at the bottom contained hardened
cement which could only be removed by chipping away, or by treatment with
acid. The dirt would, however, have been sterilised during the bottlewashing
process and the milk would not have harmed the consumer. Another
milk bottle contained a milk bottle top, a match, and some plastic material;
but as there was no sign whatever of any alkali attack on the aluminium
cap or the match, and the milk had curdled naturally, it could not be said
that these articles had been through the washing machine. A third milk
bottle contained an ice pop sachet, but tests with the washing fluid used
by the dairy indicated that it had not been through the bottle-washing
machine. Had it done so, some of the printing on the sachet would have been
removed, but it was not.
Some reputed bread and butter was spread with margarine, and a roll and
butter contained a mixture of margarine and butter.
An increasing number of complaints are received about extraneous matter
in bread and, unfortunately, most of these are justified. A cut granary
loaf contained an iron wood screw l½" long; and another loaf a thin 1" nail;
in both cases these had been baked in the bread.
A fruit fly was present in a portion of rye loaf, and part of a fly was
found in a croissant roll.
A piece of orange-coloured paper was found in a portion of wholemeal
bread, and the foreign matter in a white loaf, shaped like a portion of a
washer, was found to consist of carbonised dough, A brown loaf contained
a small piece of hard dough with dirt and fat, whilst another brown loaf
contained what at first appeared to be mouse excrement, but which was
really dirty bread material probably mixed with broken poppy seeds. Pieces
of fibre about 3" long, which had been cooked in the roll, were found in a
pancake roll; and a piece of cotton approximately l'-0" in length in an
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