View report page

FOOD
The health and well-being of a community is dependent on a number
of factors, one of the most important of which is the food supply.
Good, clean, wholesome food can raise the standard of health just as
poor, infected and contaminated food can lower it.
The standards required by the Food and Drugs Act, 1938 and the
byelaws made thereunder with regard to the handling of food provide
a minimum which it is necessary for food traders to observe. In general
the food premises in the Borough can be said to have reached that
minimum, but I am happy to report that there are many establishments
that, either as a result of their own efforts or in response to suggestions
by my department have remodelled or re-equipped their premises to a
standard well above the legal minimum.
It is safe to anticipate that in the very near future the Food and Drugs
Amendment Bill will become law. One of its principal features will be
the empowering of the appropriate Ministers to make regulations providing
for, among other things, the registration of certain food premises ;
their construction and equipment ; the precautions to be taken to
prevent the development of infection in foodstuffs and directions to
persons employed in the handling and transport of food as to their
personal behaviour and responsibility.
Contamination of food arises from a number of causes, often from
carelessness or lack of thought. It may be caused by the hands of persons
excreting the causal organism of the disease, or by carriers or by
persons temporarily excreting the organism without themselves being
ill. A full appreciation of the risks whether in the home, shop, food
factory or restaurant should lead to an increase in our individual
responsibility. Hygienic food handling is a combined operation which
calls for strict observance of the rules of cleanliness at all stages. Legislation,
however comprehensive it may be, will not achieve this object
without the full co-operation of all concerned.
Food handlers can acquaint themselves with the causes of food
infection and the methods by which it is spread and by practising personal
cleanliness reduce the risk.
Food traders can set an example to their employees by their own
personal care and by ensuring that their establishments are at all times
properly equipped and hygienically maintained.
Parents can inculcate into their children a full appreciation of cleanliness
and hygiene in all its aspects, so that as future citizens they will
instinctively protect themselves and others from the easily avoidable
risks of infection whether connected with food or not.
Customers should discriminate in their choice of shop. The housewife
is a great force in promoting public opinion for clean food. She should
demand cleanliness and patronise only the traders who practise it.
33