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production because so little milk is now produced in this area, but rather
on the treatment of the milk, and still more so on its state as delivered to
the houses. While it is generally accepted that heat-treated milk is
the only certainly-safe milk, and while, too, it is understandable that
to warrant the expenditure of installing and maintaining a pasteurizing
plant necessitates large-scale handling, the price is being paid with
to-day's staffing difficulties. Most of the complaints received about
milk relate not to the milk itself but to the bottles in which it is
delivered, the fault being the presence of dirt or glass or other foreign
matter. On paper the precautions to prevent such occurrences ought
to be sufficient. The bottles are subjected to examination before being
passed into the washing machines where they are subjected to a process
ample to cleanse the ordinary bottle; they are again examined after
bottling, while on top of this is the fact that they are again handled
when any unsatisfactory conditions might be noted. In spite of all this,
though, milk is delivered in unsatisfactory bottles. The explanation of
the presence of glass is that sometimes a bottle is broken in the process of
capping, and again the precautions taken should ensure that the bottles,
which might contain a fragment, are withdrawn. As to the heavy
pollution of the bottles, while, of course, the milk retailers have their own
responsibilities, it must be accepted that there would not be the complaints
of this contamination if those to whom the milk was delivered
would only treat the bottles in a reasonable manner. Accepting that
it is the responsibility of the milk retailer to reject the heavily-soiled
bottle, the fact remains that it is not the milk retailer, but usually some
householder who has, by irregular use, allowed a bottle to become soiled.
So long as milk has to be delivered in returnable containers, the co-operation
of the general public will be required if the householders are not
occasionally to have delivered to them milk in containers in unsatisfactory
condition. This co-operation of the housewife is wanted in other
ways. While it can only be the Inspector who can see that the conditions
under which food is prepared are wholesome, it is surely a matter for the
housewife as much as for the Inspector to see that the conditions under
which it is sold are satisfactory, whether what is objectionable is the
handling by the shop assistants or the very common contamination by
other possible purchasers.
The following report is submitted by the Chief Sanitary Inspector,
Mr. S. N. King.
Introduction.
The year under review has been remarkable for the small return in
almost every phase of the Inspectors' work, judged by the tasks completed
as compared with the efforts made and energy expended. In
pre-war years between 60 and 70 per cent. of the requests made to owners
or agents to improve or repair premises were acted on by them without
question. Of the remainder, possibly 50 per cent. demanded more
forceful methods, making it necessary in only a comparatively small
number of cases to serve statutory notices or take other extreme methods.
During 1946, owners and agents however, found themselves faced with
such a multiplicity of difficulties before any work could be put in hand,
that only a few endeavoured at an early date to take serious action.