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V. INSPECTION AMD SUPERVISION OF FOOD
A notable improvement in the food trade has been the increase in
prepacked foods exposed for sale, and the wider variety of such goods.
While prepacked foods are advantageous from the standpoint of food
hygiene, there is a resultant tendency for traders to increase the
types of foods for sale without risk of contamination. Thus it is
now more common for butchers to sell prepacked grocery, grocers to sell
greengrocery, greengrocers to sell prepacked fish, and fishmongers to
sell prepacked vegetables.
The quantity of unsound food condemned in warehouses and shops
and the number of certificates issued have increased. This does not
reflect a deterioration in the quality of canned foods, but rather that
more shopkeepers and traders are inviting the opinion of the food
inspectors before offering doubtful goods for sale. In addition,
shopkeepers are returning suspected canned food to the warehouses,
which increases the amount of food condemned at these premises and the
number of certificates issued.
During the year special attention was given to the examination
and sampling of desiccated coconut, tea, and dried egg products landed
at wharves in the Borough.
The Food Hygiene (General) Regulations, 1960, came into operation
on 1st October, and amended and consolidated regulations previously
issued. The Food Hygiene (Docks, Carriers, &c.) Regulations, 1960,
which also came into operation this year prescribe requirements to
secure the hygienic handling of food at docks, cold stores and other
premises previously excluded from the Food Hygiene Regulations, 1955.
Codes of Practice were issued during the year jointly by the
Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food
covering the Hygienic Transport & Handling of Fish and Hygiene in the
Retail Fish Trade. Similar Food Hygiene Codes of Practice for the
Meat Trade were issued in 1959.
A summary of the visits made by the Public Health Inspectors
(Food) to food premises will be found on pages 70 and 71.
Bacteriological Examination of Foodstuffs.
Samples of food submitted for bacteriological examination numbered
4.00, consisting of 294 samples of desiccated coconut, 32 frozen whole
hen egg powder, 22 ice cream, 20 tuberculin tested (pasteurised) milk,
11 pasteurised milk, 8 sterilised milk, 3 sausages, 3 watercress,
2 kangeroo steak (canned), 1 braised kangeroo tails (canned),
1 jellied eels, 1 frozen prawns, 1 chicken and ham paste and 1 trifle.
All were found to be satisfactory with the exception of 7 samples of
ice cream, referred to on page 38, and a sample of watercress which
revealed the presence of B.coli (faecal), notification being sent to
the local authority of the area in which the watercress was grown.
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