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The Ministry of Agriculture. Fisheries & Food's long
awaited Codes of Practice for food handling have still not
been published and consequently a revival of the Food Hygiene
Guild has not been attempted. The Guild, as formerly con
stituted. was made redundant by the Food Hygiene Regulations,
1955, which laid down standards higher than those specified
in the Guild's Codes of Practice. The Ministry's Codes of
Practice will, it is expected, lay down standards with which
conscientious food traders, such as those who were members
of the Guild, would be willing to comply. It would be
possible of course to formulate our own Codes but as the
official ones have been imminent for two years and will
presumably be issued with the blessing of national trade
associations it does not appear that there is much to be
gained by doing so.
ilawkers of Food.
The registration of hawkers of certain classes of food
has been compulsory in this district since 1939 and immediately
after the Middlesex County Council Act. 1950, came
into force the Council adopted Section 11 of the Act to
extend the registration of hawkers to cover all classes of
foodstuffs. The vehicles and storage premises used by
these traders are regularly inspected by the Public Health
Inspectors and have to comply with the Food Hygiene Regu
lations.
Sampling of Food and Drugs.
(a) Miscellaneous foods, such as shell-fish, cream
cakes, watercress and meat products are regularly sampled
by the Public Health Inspectors for bacteriological examination.
Although there are no recognised standards of
bacteriological quality for these classes of food the results
are of considerable assistance to the Inspectors in
their contacts with food-handlers, illustrating, as they
often do. that the greatest care is necessary in the storage
and handling of this class of food.
The bacteriological examination of samples of milk, ice
cream, water and miscellaneous foods is carried out at the
Public Health Laboratory. Ealing, and I am indebted to the
Director and Staff of the Laboratory, for their ready
assistance at all times. Details of the samples submitted
will be found elsewhere in this report under their respective
headings.
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