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to contamination If not properly wrapped and displayed under
suitable conditions, as frequent test sampling has demonstrated,
Although there are obviously advantages both to the
retailer and the public if perishable food is mass pre-packed
under controlled conditions, there is the disadvantage that
some of these foods deteriorate more rapidly when packed and
any left unsold from one day to the next, although still
displayed for sale, may be stale. The housewife Is less well
able to judge what she is buying with the kind of wrapper which
obscures the contents, but the use of transparent materials
for wrapping is Increasing.
The campaign which has been waged for years to
encourage fish retailers to install closed fronts in their
premises is now showing encouraging results and the open
fronted fish shop is now in the minority. This is a big step
forward in preventing the contamination of fish and poultry
by road dust and reducing the nuisance from flies but It
appears to be an Innovation which the public accepts with
reservations since some housewives still expect to handle
such foods before buying them.
The very rapid Increase in the production of poultry
for the table, particularly of the broiler variety, has not
yet raised any serious local problems. It is not practicable
to ensure the Inspection of every bird in the same way that
every beef carcase can be examined and in addition it Is known
that in the cooking of these birds the temperatures reached in
deeper parts of the leg meat is insufficient to ensure
sterilisation. In spite of this no case has been brought to
the notice of the department of any poultry being unfit for
human consumption.
It is to be hoped that the producers are and will
remain fully alive to their responsibilities not to distribute
birds which when being dressed are found to have any condition
which renders them unfit for consumption. Both spit and oven
roasting of those birds by retailers is now quite common and
where this is done the premises must be registered. Many
premises not previously liable to registration will thus be
brought under greater supervision by the inspectors.
Chemical Sampling of Foods
The general aim has been to check the greatest
possible variety of foods on sale. Greater attention has been
given to those foods which have in past years been found to be