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39
Inspection and Supervision of Food and Food Premises
The Food & Drugs Act, 1938 would appear to give local authorities
sufficient powers to secure the cleanliness of all premises used for the
preparation, storage or sale of food since it contains, among others, the
following provisions under Section 13 :
(h) Cleanliness should be observed by persons employed in the room
both in regard to the room and all articles, apparatus and utensils
therein, and in regard to themselves and their clothing.
(i) There should be provided in, or within reasonable distance of,
the room suitable washing basins and a sufficient supply of soap,
clean towels, and clean water, both hot and cold, for the use
of persons employed in the room.
Superficially, these powers would seem to be sufficient and it is not
until they are considered from the legal aspect that is to say from the
point of view of the powers of the Magistrates Court to order the Council
to register premises in cases where they have refused registration, that the
difficulties become evident. For instance, the Act does not say that there
shall be a constant supply of hot or cold water. Again, what is to be read
into "cleanliness should be observed by persons . . . "? By what standard
is cleanliness to be measured? Must the dirt be so obvious as to be
apparent to the most casual observer? It would appear that the dirt must
be obvious to impress a Magistrates Court, as will be mentioned later.
The principal difficulties arise from the interpretation to be placed
upon the words "reasonable distance of," "suitable washing basins,"
"sufficient supply, etc." The meaning one would like to apply to these
provisions from the public health point of view is that there should be
no difficulty in keeping clean, but the legal construction placed upon
these words is apparently "is it possible to keep clean."
The two following examples of the legal aspect typify the extreme
difficulties with which local authorities are confronted in their attempts
to administer the provisions of Section 13 of the Food & Drugs Act.
The Magistrate at the North London Magistrates Court, in hearing
a summons taken to enforce the registration for the sale of ice-cream from
a small greengrocer's shop in which the supply of water was obtained
from a tap over a gully in a small yard entered from a footpath, the tap
with two lavatories being used in common by three lock-up shops, used
these words: