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are selling "marked" beef, and find a good demand for it. This beef is
graded under the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act, 1926.
Other Food Premises.
The total number of inspections to food premises was 3,122, and
these include visits to milk shops and butchers' shops which have already
been detailed. Other premises where food is prepared for sale, deposited
for sale or sold, include bakers' shops, greengrocery and fruit shops,
ice-cream shops, fish shops, fried fish shops, eating places, tea shops and
restaurants. As a result of these inspections 73 notices requiring sanitary
defects to be remedied were issued.
Restaurants.—The keeping of restaurants is one of the most important
trades in Westminster. A permanent day population almost
four times as large as the resident population, together with the enormous
daily influx of people who come for shopping, theatres or other social
reasons, require to be catered for. A register of all restaurants is being
compiled but the survey is not yet completed. About 1,100 restaurants
have already been indexed, and during the year 680 visits were paid.
Kitchens, pantries, messroom arrangements for staff, systems for washing
up, and general sanitary arrangements were specially observed. Defects
requiring notices were found in 105 instances, and in each case the work
wa6 satisfactorily carried out.
Fish Shops and, Fried Fish Shops were periodically inspected. There
are 27 of these shops in the City to which the Food Inspectors paid 47
visits.
Ice-Cream Premises.—It is particularly necessary that there should be
a high standard of cleanliness in the preparation of ice cream and in the
premises where it is made. Ice-cream has been known to convey germs
of typhoid fever and is stated also to have contained the bacillus of
tuberculosis. A register has now been prepared in accordance with the
provisions of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1928, and
54 premises used for the manufacture, etc., of ice-cream have been
recorded. The inspectors paid 143 visits for the purpose of supervision
of the above premises and in three instances Notices had to be served to
remedy certain dirty conditions, which were at once complied with.
Bakehouses.—At the end of 1929 there were 66 bakehouses in the City,
of which 48 were underground. During the year, two underground and
four above-ground bakehouses were discontinued being used as such. 176
visits of inspection were made, and in all instances the cleansing which is
required to be done twice a year was carried out.