View report page

138
APPENDIX T.
6th December, 1938
Food and Drugs Act, 1938.
Memorandum by the Medical Officer of Health.
This Act received the Royal Assent on the 29th January, 1938, and comes into operation on
the first day of October, 1939. This is one of a series of Acts designed to consolidate Public Health
Law and Administration. The first of these was the Local Government Act of 1933; the second, the
Public Health Act of 1936 and now the Food and Drugs Act of 1938. This last Act is based on the
recommendations of the Third Interim Report of the Local Government and Public Health Consolidation
Committee which was presented by the Minister of Health to Parliament in December, 1937.
Extent of the Act.
The Food and Drugs Act, 1938, consolidates and simplifies and in some degree extends existing
provisions in various Acts of Parliament relating to Food and Drugs. It also seeks to secure simplicity
of administration in Willesden and similar areas by placing the whole local control of food and drugs
under the local authority which, in the case of Willesden, is the Willesden Borough Council.
The Act deals with the composition of food and drugs; regulations as to food; unsound food;
precautions against contamination of food; food poisoning; meat from knackers' yards; milk and
dairies; artificial cream; bread and flour; margarine, margarine-cheese, butter and milk-blended
butter; ice-cream; horseflesh; shell-fish; provisions as to importation; markets; slaughter-houses
and knackers' yards; cold-air stores and refrigerators; general and miscellaneous provisions referring
to administration, including entry, obstruction, etc., legal proceedings, compensation, appeals, interpretation,
repeals, etc.
New Duties.
The following is a summarised list of the principal new duties which the Act imposes upon the
Willesden Borough Council:—
(1) The enforcement of any regulations made by the Minister as to food. (Section 8.)
(2) The enforcement of the provisions as to unsound food offered as prizes, etc. (Section 11.)
(3) The registration of premises used in connection with the manufacture or sale of ice-cream
or preserved food, etc. (Section 14.)
(4) The making of bye-laws as may be determined by the Local Authority with respect to
the handling, wrapping, etc., of food and the sale of food in the open air. (Section 15.)
(5) The enforcement of the display of notices showing the name and address of the vendor
of ice-cream, etc., from stalls, carts, baskets, etc. (Section 16.)
(6) The notification by medical practitioners of all suspected cases of food poisoning-
(Section 17.)
(7) Power to deal with any person who sells any part of an animal slaughtered in a knacker's
yard for human consumption. (Section 19.)
(8) Power to deal with ice-cream likely to cause milk-borne disease. (Section 37.)
(9) The licensing of premises either as a slaughter-house or knacker's yard and not as heretofore
as a slaughter-house only. (Section 57.)
(10) The enforcement of the provisions of the Act relating to food and drugs so that generally
speaking it may be secured that foodstuffs and drugs are of the substance, nature and
quality demanded and that they have not been interfered with so as to render the food
injurious to health or affect injuriously the quality or potency of the drug. (Section 65.)
Although the foregoing all represents new work placed upon the Local Authority the main
amount of this new work is contained in the last paragraph (10) above relating to food and drugs.
In connection with these matters sampling has to be done and analyses undertaken.
Sampling.
For purposes of sampling there is no need to add to the existing staff of sanitary inspectors, all
of whom are qualified by examination as Food Inspectors, but from time to time agents for purchasing
would have to be employed in order that vendors may not be apprised that the sample is being taken
on behalf of the Council.
Analysis.
Analysis has to be considered from the point of view of informal samples and formal samples.
It is generally estimated that 3 such samples per 1,000 of the population should be taken annually
or some 600 samples in all for Willesden in any one year—450 of these would be informal samples and
150 formal samples.
Formal samples would require to be analysed by a recognised chemist having the necessary
qualifications as public analyst duly appointed by the Council for this purpose. The cost of analysis is
usually 15s. per sample. I would recommend that the necessary steps be taken to make this appointment.