View report page

70
The Food Hygiene (General) Regulations, I960 amended and consolidated
the Food Hygiene Regulations, 1955-1957 and brought within
their scope the handling and service of food on board "home-going
ships" and moored vessels.
Guild of Food Hygiene. An early step in the Clean Food Campaign
which was started in 1948 was the formation of the Harrow Food Hygiene
Advisory Council on which were representatives of the various organisations
concerned with food. This was followed by the creation of the
Harrow Guild of Food Hygiene as a separate body of food traders in the
Borough. Membership of the Guild was open to those food handlers who
had been issued with the certificate of the Public Health Committee, on
the recommendation of the Committee that their premises met the
requirements of the codes of practice which had been drawn up in consultation
with the traders of the various food trades concerned. The Guild
decided to issue emblems for display in shop windows to such of those
holding certificates who wished to have them for the sum of £1 which was
fixed as an annual contribution and which included the initial supply of
the emblem. The Guild dissolved in May, 1952 from which time the
Advisory Council took over the Guild's functions, including the purchase
and distribution of the emblems.
In the early days, many applications for certificates were received.
In most instances it was possible to grant them immediately ; in some
they could be granted only after certain work had been carried out on
the premises and in few instances were they not granted at all. There were,
however, very many premises which were eligible to possess certificates
but in respect of which no applications were received. In all, certificates
were being exhibited at only about one-third of the food premises in the
district. In the meantime, the Food Hygiene Regulations had come into
force. These rendered unnecessary the codes of practice which had set
the standard up to this. After a period in which this was the position for a
very long time, the time came when the question was whether there was
now any special advantage in the certificate and the emblem. The matter
was discussed and at their meeting in November, the Public Health
Committee agreed not to issue any more certificates or emblems to food
traders in the Borough ; but that no action was to be taken to withdraw
those certificates or emblems already issued and being displayed by a
number of food traders, it being felt that with regard to the emblems, the
holders might wish to retain them as reminders of their active support ot
the Council's campaign against dirty food in its early days before legislation
was passed when it was part of a voluntary pioneering effort in
which the Council and its predecessors took a leading part, ultimately
to be rewarded by legislation in the form of the Food Hygiene Regulations.