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Food Condemned
During the year 14,668 lbs. of food were found to be unfit and had
to be destroyed. Fruit and vegetables accounted for 9,243 lbs. of this,
meat and meat products for 4,858 lbs., fish for 369 lbs., and groceries the
remaining 198 lbs. These figures do not include over 1,500 lbs. in weight
of groceries and provisions damaged by the flooding that occurred in the
Hatch End district.
Complaints
44 complaints were received about foreign matter in foodstuffs. 33
of these related to bread, cakes and confectionery, 6 to meat pies, and 5
to tinned or packed food.
Ice Ceam
At the end of the year 384 premises were registered for the retailing
of ice cream, an increase of 15 on the number on the register at the end
of 1957. Of these 8 were registered for the purpose of manufacture, but
at only two was ice cream made.
62 samples were taken, 16 from the manufacturers in the district and
46 from retailers of prepacked or loose ice cream. Grades I and 11 are
considered satisfactory; grades III and IV are not, and if repeated
indicate faults in practice. Of the 16 samples from local manufacturers,
four were Grade IV, and therefore not satisfactory, the remainder being
Grades I and II. Of the remaining 46, five samples of loose or prepacked
ice cream were Grade III, three Grade IV, the remaining 38 being in
Grades I or II. 33 of the 35 samples of ice lollies examined were satisfactory,
the remaining two being in Grade IV.
Preserved and Pickled Foods
The Food and Drugs Act 1938 requires premises where sausages or
preserved or pickled foods are prepared or manufactured to be registered
by the Local Authority. The number of premises now registered is 125,
the same as the previous year.
Registration of Hawkers
The Middlesex County Council Act 1950 requires that any person
not being a shopkeeper retailing any food from a cart, barrow, basket or
any other receptacle, shall be registered with the Local Authority, and
that the storage premises used by him shall also be registered.
The number registered as trading in the district at the end of the year
was 61, an increase of 4 during the year. Of these 24 were trading from
storage premises in Harrow, and 37 from premises outside the district.
(D) ADULTERATION OF FOOD
The following particulars have been taken from the Annual Report
of the Chief Officer of the Public Control Department of the County
Council for the year 1957/58.
Of the 1,567 samples examined by the Public Analyst, only 140 were
found to be incorrect. This was an improvement on the position of the
previous year when out of 1,517 samples, 223 were incorrect. Most of the
improvement was due to a fall from 128 to 24 in the number of incorrect
samples of milk, an improvement which is partly offset by an increase
from 95 to 116 in the samples other-than-milk.