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Icecream — grading
Icecream is submitted to the Public Health Laboratory for bacteriological
examination. The icecream is graded according to the time taken
to decolorise a dye, methylene blue. The test is a provisional one and
because of the many factors which govern the hygienic quality of icecream
it is recommended officially that judgment should be based on a
series of samples and that too much attention should not be paid to the
result of an individual sample. It is suggested that over a six-monthly
period, at least 50 percent of a vendor's samples should fall into grade 1,
80 percent into grades 1 or 2, not more than 20 percent into grade 3 and
none into grade 4.
During the year 189 samples of icecream were submitted for
bacteriological examination with the following results;—

In general, grades I and II are satisfactory, while grades III and IV
may indicate some defect in manufacture, handling or storage. Such
cases are followed up and advice is given.
Adulteration of food
The number of samples taken during the year under the Food and
Drugs Act was 845; of these, 87 were formal and 758 informal. After
examination the public analyst reported that 11 of the formal samples
and 18 of the informal samples were adulterated or below standard;
the percentage of adulteration amounted to 12.6 in the formal samples,
2.4 in the informal samples, and to 3.4 of all the samples submitted,
compared with 4.4 in the previous year.