View report page

56
Public Health Department. This case resulted in legal proceedings, and
the offending company was fined £10, with five guineas costs.
Legal proceedings were also taken against a firm who baked bread
in which a piece of wire was discovered. A fine of £5 was imposed, with
five guineas costs.
Part of a meat pie, sold unwrapped, was brought to the Department
with the complaint that it had a bitter taste. No conclusion could be
reached as to how this had occurred, but it may have resulted from
the use of a chlorine antiseptic at the retail premises, or by some similar
solution at the complainant's place of employment.
Food Poisoning
During the year, sixteen notifications were received of persons
residing in Westminster who suffered from food poisoning. Nine of these
were single cases. The remaining seven were associated with three small
outbreaks involving two families, and a single person who was taken ill
following a meal at an hotel; in this latter case, no notifications were
received in respect of the patient's three companions who also suffered
minor symptoms.
Apart from these formal notifications, a number of other outbreaks
came to the notice of the Public Health Department and were
investigated.
Two outbreaks closely followed one another at the same restaurant,
where the causative organism was found to be Salmonella bredeney.
The significant discovery during this enquiry was that fourteen members
of the staff of the restaurant concerned were unknowingly carriers of the
organism. Treatment to rid the carriers of the organism extended
over several months during which time the employees were excluded
from work. Further outbreaks, in which this organism was discovered,
occurred in London at the same time, and the vchicle of infection was
found to be ham from a distribution centre (not in Westminster). Firms
who received ham from this source wore all visited, and appropriate action
taken.
Two further small outbreaks which occurred at premises in Westminster
were investigated, without conclusive results. Information was
also received concerning four individuals who were excreting organisms
associated with food poisoning; two were understood to have recently
returned from abroad. The cases were not notified.
Symptoms of food poisoning were suffered by diners following a
function at a Westminster hotel. Three hundred and forty people
attended the dinner, and of these it is known that fifty-two were affected.
On the day following the meal, on receipt of information concerning
the outbreak, an immediate investigation was undertaken at the hotel