View report page

36
The Need of a New and Consolidated Sale of Food and Drugs Act.
During the last two or three years especially, considerable dissatisfaction has
been expressed on the absence of adequate legislation to prevent contamination of
food and to ensure its purity and quality; this has now in some measure been
met by the issue of the "Public Health (Meat) Regulations and the Public Health
(Preservatives, etc., in Food) Regulations, which are useful steps in the right
direction. But there is need for a consolidation Act as well; the food-trader also
cannot reasonably be expected to bear in mind all his duties nor can he purchase
anywhere a publication which will easily show the whole of these duties. We
want a new Sale of Food and Drugs Act which would not only codify the whole
of the laws relating to the preparation, sale and storage of food, but also include
such definitions of various articles of food as would more or less settle finally,
as far as local authorities were concerned, the many questions outstanding at the
present time.
Contamination of Food.
We have not sufficiently stringent and definite legislation dealing with the contamination
of food.
The Regulations made under the South Australian Foods and Drugs Act, 1908, have a
section containing 17 general regulations dealing with the protection of food from
contamination.
They include provisions dealing with the cleanliness of the clothing and body of all
persons handling food for sale. They require that no persons suffering from any contagious,
infectious or loathsome disease shall handle such food; the comparable New Zealand regulation
is worded:—
"No person who is suffering from any communicable disease, or who is a "carrier"of
any infectious disease, or who is suffering from any condition causing a discharge of pus or
serum from any part of the head, neck, hands, or arms shall engage in the manufacture,
preparation, storage, packing, carriage, or delivery for sale of any food or of any article
used or likely to be used as a food, and no person who is in contact with any infectious
disease shall so engage if forbidden to do so by the Medical Officer of Health."
Another regulation of general application found in the South Australian code requires
that the premises are to be clean, properly constructed, kept in good repair and constructed
of such material as may be approved by the Central Board of Health.
Protection from Flies.
The South Australian code states food for sale must be protected from rats, mice, cockroaches,
flies, spiders, bugs, moths and all other vermin, and from any unwholesome
substance, odour or smell.
A regulation made under the New Zealand Health Act of 1920 requires that every person
who sells any food which is ordinarily consumed in the state or condition in which it is sold
shall, while it is in his possession or under his control, protect such food from dust and
flies and any unwholesome matter by storage in covered receptacles or by covering with
gauze, or by other effectual means.
Fruit and vegetables commonly eaten in an uncooked state shall be protected from flies,
dust and unwholesome matter in such manner as the local authority may by by-law direct,
or, in the absence of such by-law, then to the satisfaction of an Inspector of Health.