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By Section 3 the Ministers of Food and Health are empowered to make regulations as to the composition
of food ; the use of any process or treatment in preparing food; the sale, consignment or delivery
of all food which does not comply with any of the regulations and as to the sale or possession of any
specified substance for use in the preparation of food. In exercising their functions under this section
the Ministers must have regard to the desirability of restricting so far as practicable the use
of substances of no nutritional value as foods or as ingredients of foods.
Section 5 deals with the labelling, etc., of food and drugs and extends the powers of the Courts in
dealing with labelling offences.
Section 6 enables the Ministers to make regulations for securing the observance of sanitary and cleanly
conditions and practices in connection with the sale of food for human consumption or the importation,
preparation, transport, storage, packaging, wrapping, exposure for sale, service or delivery of food
intended for sale or sold for human consumption.
Section 7 gives the Court power, on convicting a person for an offence under the foregoing regulations
in respect of any catering premises, to make an order disqualifying that person from using those premises
as catering premises for a period not exceeding two years. A person subjected to such an order is
guilty of an offence if he uses the said premises as catering premises or participates in the management
of any business in which the premises are so used by another person, during the currency of the order.
Provision is made for revocation of the order on application by the person affected.
Section 8 extends Section 14 of the principal Act dealing with the registration of premises used for
or in connection with the manufacture and sale of ice cream, sausages and certain preserved foods.
Any application for the registration must specify the purpose or purposes for which registration is
applied for and all rooms or accommodation in the premises proposed to be used for such purposes.
The same premises maybe registered under Section 14 for more than one of the purposes described in
this section. The Minister may by order direct that this Section may be extended to other businesses
dealing with the sale or preparation for sale or the storage of food.
The Minister may make regulations under Section 10 providing for the licensing by local authorities
of the use of vehicles, stalls etc. for the sale of food.
Section 12 deals with cream substances and makes it an offence to sell or offer or expose for sale for
human consumption (a) any substance which resembles cream in appearance but is not cream or (b)
any article of food containing such a substance, under a description or designation which includes
the word " cream " (whether or not as part of a composite word). This does not apply to reconstituted
or imitation cream as long as they are so described.
Section 13 provides for the setting up of a food hygiene advisory council which will consist of a chairman
appointed by the Minister and such other number of members as the Minister may determine
to advise the Minister on matters arising under the Act.
Section 25 extends the time within which proceedings for an offence on formal sampling must
commence. In the case of a sample of milk the period is still limited to 28 days but in any other case
the period is now two months.
The penalties imposed by the Act are set out in Section 26 and provide for a fine not exceeding £100
or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or both and in the case of a continuing offence a
further fine not exceeding £5 for each day during which the offence continues after conviction. The
penalty imposed under Section 79 of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938 was, in the case of a first offence,
a fine not exceeding £20 and in the case of a subsequent offence a fine not exceeding £100 or imprisonment
for a term not exceeding three months or both such fine and imprisonment.
Milk. — There are 70 premises from which milk is sold, and inspections made numbered 158.
During the year, 213 applications under the Milk (Special Designation) (Raw Milk) Regulations,
1949—1954 and the Milk (Special Designation) (Pasteurised and Sterilised Milk) Regulations, 1949—
1953 were received from seventy milk purveyors, and licences were granted as follows:—
Tuberculin tested milk 46 dealer's and 13 supplementary
Pasteurised milk 1 pasteuriser's, 63 dealer's and 15 supplementary
Sterilised milk 1 steriliser's, 59 dealer's and 15 supplementary
The average composition of the 223 genuine samples of milk analysed was: total solids 12.46 per
cent.; fat 3.70 per cent.; solids not fat 8.76 per cent.; as compared with the legal minima, namely,
11.50 per cent.; 3.00 per cent, and 8.50 per cent, respectively.
Thirty-two samples of milk taken at the premises of two authorised wholesale firms operating heat
treatment plants were submitted to the tests prescribed for the various designations; all were reported
to be satisfactory. Of 80 other samples of milk examined by the Council's Bacteriologist, all were
found to comply with the requisite standards except one which failed to satisfy the methylene blue
test and one which failed the phosphatase test.