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18
CATERING ESTABLISHMENTS
Before establishing a catering business, application is made for planning approval and applications
are referred by the City Architect to the Medical Officer of Health, with a view to advising
the developers on whether the premises will be suitable from a public health aspect.
Although this is purely an advisory service, it is useful to both caterers and the Health
Department, in that future difficulties can be avoided by co-operative effort.
During the year, 77 intending caterers obtained the advice of this Department before deciding
to proceed with their ventures.
OBSERVATIONS ON CATC RING ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE CITY OF LONDON
Almost everything that can be usefully said concerning the hygiene of catering establishments
has been mentioned in previous annual reports and has been written up at great length by many
authorities. Nevertheless, one cannot escape the unpalatable fact that it is becoming increasingly
difficult to ensure that even minimum standards of cleanliness are maintained in some City
restaurants. The cleaning of both premises and equipment is a task for which nobody wishes to
acoept responsibility, and one is approaching a state of affairs where it is becoming well nigh
impossible to hire labour to carry out this essential part of catering activity. These difficulties
have been increased by the continued relative unprofitability of the catering industry in the City,
and the necessity for economy in the use of labour. Invariably, expenditure on labour for cleaning
and hygiene is the first saving to be made.
However, increasing emphasis is being placed on the hygiene of food premises and at the
end of the year three Public Health Inspectors were engaged full time on this work. Although no
general sense of satisfaction can be expressed at the conditions found to exist in many restaurants,
there is some consolation to be gained from the improvements which have resulted from the
energetic efforts of the inspectors concerned and the more concientious caterers. Altogether
1,672 inspections of catering establishments were carried out during the year under review, and
171 written communications were sent to individual proprietors drawing their attention to a variety
of unsatisfactory conditions. In most instances, all the necessary improvements were effected
without resource to legal action, and whilst no legal proceedings were actually instituted during
1968, there was at the end of the year a residual number of unsatisfactory premises in respect
of which it was subsequently found necessary to initiate legal action. The Corporation's procedure
for dealing with such cases has been re-examined and expedited,, and it is anticipated that
unless there is a radical improvement in the present trend of neglecting restaurant premises,
legal action will be taken more frequently and more speedily than has been the practice heretofore.
Certain caterers must be made to realise that they can no longer hope to continually ignore their
statutory obligations with impunity.
Unfortunately, the lack of prosperity in the industry is resulting in the gradual withdrawal
from the City by the large multiple caterers. For example, for this very reason, a large firm
which is a household name has actually closed down five catering premises within the City
during a period of six months.
It is perhaps unfortunate that the emphasis over the years on "dirty" restaurants tends to
obscure the fact that a very determined effort has been made and is being made to achieve a
higher standard of construction and design in City restaurants, and these efforts have, to a degree,
borne fruit in the many truly excellent catering establishments which at the present time can be
found within the square mile. Furthermore, the justified criticism which has been made of defaulters
should not prevent an appreciation of the first class service rendered by the more responsible
City caterers.
THE FOOD AND DRUGS ACT, 1955
During the year the work of the Sampling Officer has been directed mainly to obtaining
informal samples of food which the housewife would normally buy regularly or be tempted to
purchase as a consequence of modern marketing methods.
Of the 397 samples purchased, only 13 (3.27%) were the subject of an adverse report by the
Public Analyst. The irregularities mostly referred to infringements of the Labelling of Food
Orders, and these were resolved after consultation with the manufacturers or packers concerned.
It should be pointed out that these infringements were mainly of a technical nature, or were due
to an unawareness of the various implications of the Regulations, rather than a deliberate attempt
to evade them.
Particular attention was again paid to the sampling of made-up foods such as fresh mince
meat, sausage meat, sausages, scotch eggs and pies of all descriptions. Where possible, these
commodities were purchased at the beginning of the week, preferably as soon as the premises
opened for business, so that an indication of the freshness or otherwise of food offered for sale