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During the year, 152 verminous rooms in 117 houses and 159
sets of beds and bedding were cleansed and freed from vermin.
Inspection and Supervision of Food.
This most important duty, particularly in war time, has again
received the closest attention of your Inspectors.
The amounts and varieties of foods seized or voluntarily
surrendered as unfit for human consumption during the year were :—
Tinned and bottled foods 3125; Fish 2435 lbs.; Meat and meat
products 1210 lbs.; Fruit and vegetables 728 lbs.; Confectionery (cakes,
loaves, pastries, etc.) 148; Eggs 280; Cheese 210 lbs.; Fishcakes 617;
Rolled Oats, Semolina, etc., 592 lbs.; Other foods 278 lbs.
Food Premises.
The number of inspections carried out during the year was 994.
Special attention was paid to restaurants and catering establishments
generally.
All applications to the Food Control Committee for licences for
catering establishments are referred to me by the Food Executive
Officer. The Sanitary Inspector then makes an inspection of the
applicants' premises to ensure they are hygienically satisfactory and
in conformance with the sanitary and other requisites of Section 13,
Food and Drugs Act, 1938. Should the premises not be suitable, the
attention of the Food Control Committee is directed to any deficiency
and the catering licence is not issued until this Department is satisfied
that all the necessary works have been carried out.
Forty-one applications for licences or transfers of licences were
made during the year. Substantial improvements were effected in
seventeen premises, twenty-two premises were found to be satisfactory
and in two cases the licences were not issued owing to applicants failing
to carry out the required improvements.
Adulteration of Food.
The normal number of samples—500—was again taken by the
Sanitary Inspectors for submission to the Public Analyst, Dr. H. E.
Cox.
There was a considerable reduction in the number of samples
found to be adulterated. This was 23 or 46 per cent. of the total
number as compared with 56 or 112 per cent. in 1942.
The decrease in the number of adulterated samples is due partly
to the issue of Food Control Orders. For instance the " Soft Drinks
Order " has put an end to the manufacture of spurious concoctions of
worthless value masquerading at comparatively high prices, under the