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for sale are slowly being made and the open-fronted meat shop is now a thing of the
past in Finchley and fish shops are following suit. Bakers and confectioners might
well arrange their stocks of comestibles so that they are screened against the risk of
contamination by customers in the shop. The provision of plate glass display cabinets
with chrome fittings, and the use of attractive materials for decoration is good but
basically the safe handling of footstuffs lies in the hands both of the operatives in
the food preparation rooms and the sales staff.
With few notable exceptions, retail food firms make little effort to teach food
hygiene to their staffs. Such faults as there are in the handling or display of food
arise from thoughdessness and a failure to understand the risks which are attached to
unclean practices, in particular the failure to make hand-washing a matter of strict
routine, and the handling of foods to be eaten uncooked without the use of suitable
tools. The service of fancy cakes by hand is an unattractive habit and an unnecessary
one. Any small inconvenience to sales staff in the use of tongs could be, I am sure,
overcome with practice.
Members of the public are sometimes guilty of malpractices, such as smoking in
foodshops, handling of food on display or taking dogs into foodshops. Shopkeepers
are often loth to risk offending customers and willingly exhibit in their premises notices
supplied by the department which request customers not to smoke or take dogs into
shops.
Registration of Food Premises
Premises used for the manufacture, storage or sale of ice cream and for the
preparation or manufacture of sausages or potted, pressed, pickled or preserved food
have to be registered. This is designed to ensure that before such operations are
commenced the premises are satisfactory for the purpose.
There are 164 shops registered for the sale of ice cream. Seventy-seven premises
are registered for the manufacture of sausages and the preservation of ham or other
meat. In addition, there are 6 dairies registered in accordance with the Milk and
Dairies (General) Regulations, 1959.
Ice cream and ice lollies sold in Finchley are obtained from one or other of the
several large manufacturers whose product is nationally known to be of a high standard.
None is manufactured in the Borough.
Butchers make sausages on their own premises and one firm uses a small factory
in the Borough for the manufacture of sausages, the preparation of hams and tongues
and the roasting of chickens in considerable quantities for sale at its branches in
Finchley, Hendon, Hornsey, Barnet and Friera Baraet.
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