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storage premises used by him shall also be registered. The number registered
as trading in the district at the end of the year was seventy-one, an
increase of five during the year. Of these, twenty-eight were trading from
storage premises in Harrow and forty-three from premises outside the
district. Before registering those premises where storage is outside this
district, enquiries of the local authority concerned are made.
(D) ADULTERATION OF FOOD
The steps to protect the public against various forms of adulteration
of food are carried out by the staff of the Public Control Department of
the County Council. The Borough for some years has had a population of
sufficient size to enable it to have been made the Food and Drugs
Authority. However, the applications of a number of Middlesex District
Councils to be made the authorities for this purpose were refused
because what would be left for the County Council to administer if the
powers were granted to all the authorities in the county who were eligible
to receive them would be inconvenient and difficult to administer. The
control of the adulteration of food is only one of the responsibilities of the
Public Control Department. They have other duties under the Weights
and Measures Acts, the Merchandise Marks Acts, the Pharmacy and
Poisons Act, the Road Traffic Act (limiting loads of heavy motor vehicles
and motor cycle protection helmets regulations), Explosives Acts. Nurses
Agencies Acts, Theatrical Employers' Registration Acts and the control of
the activities of employment agencies.
The following particulars have been taken from the Annual Report of
the Chief Officer of the Public Control Department of the Middlesex
County Council for the year 1960/61:
During the year, 1,652 samples were submitted to the Public Analyst.
Of these, only ninety-two were not up to standard. There was only one
offence this year of the sale at a cafe of hot milk containing added water.
One farmer was cautioned for selling milk with slightly added water.
The incidence of foreign bodies in food was not so high. Only some
of the sufferers complained, and of these only some complained to the
Public Control Department of the County Council rather than to the
Public Health Department of the County Districts.
There were eight cases of the addition of preservatives to meat, a
practice which has been forbidden for over thirty years. This was just
half the number found in the previous year.
There were only ten infringements arising from samples submitted to
the Public Analyst in respect of misdescription of food, the commonest
fault being confectionery being described as chocolate which was in effect
chocolate substitute.