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58
One class of traders who present great difficulties
are the unlicensed street traders. Many of them sell fruit and
vegetables and they are adept in the art of avoiding the
consequencies of breaches of the Regulations. On the approach
of "authority" in the person of the police or the public health
inspectors they brush off their customers and push their barrows
along the road with an air of triumphant innocence or with a
justifiable faith in the honesty of the public disappear leaving
their barrows behind until the "trouble" has departed. They
cause a great deal of nuisance by the indiscriminate dumping of
vegetable refuse, their general standard of personal hygiene is
poor, and it is a matter of the utmost difficulty to obtain the
necessary evidence for the purpose of prosecution for offences.
Bacteriological Sampling of Foods
The food inspector, Mr. W.F. Newport, has again taken
a large number of samples of cooked meats for bacteriological
examination.
These have been obtained from premises representing a
fair cross section of those selling such food in the Borough.
Since the inception of the Food Hygiene Regulations this has
now become a routine measure which has been adopted in order to
obtain information as to the relative merits or demerits of
various methods of the display and handling of food, particularly
susceptible to contamination and the spread of food poisoning
organiams„
Analysis of the results has demonstrated the great
value of adequate refrigeration and screening and adverse
reports have helped considerably in persuading vendors to expend
considerable sums of money in providing refrigerated displays
and Improving the screening and handling of foods.
Many premises still display "open" foods under unsatisfactory
conditions, either in the windows or on shelves or
shop counters, and it is hoped gradually to improve the standard
of display throughout the Borough.
It should, of course, be borne in mind that these
adverse reports must only be regarded as an index of unsatisfactory
conditions at some point in the production, display and handling of
these foods, since in no case did the bacteriologist find harmful
organisms which rendered them unfit for consumption.
Once again, I am indebted to Dr. Betty Hobbs of the
Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale, for many helpful