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22
SECTION E. — INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION
OF FOOD.
1. Unsound Food Complaints.
Twenty-one complaints alleging that food had been sold to the
dissatisfaction of the customer were received during the year. The
investigations which followed showed that about one-third of complaints
referred to mould growths or souring due to the failure of the
food trader to turn over stock in a proper manner. There is growing
evidence of the advantage to the retailer if a system of visual-aid
coding is adopted for deliveries of prepacked perishable goods; the
retailer can then easily determine the date of delivery and is in no
doubt as to the day when the "shelf-life" of the article has expired,
so that such foods can be withdrawn from sale and destroyed.
One of the complaints resulted in legal proceedings being taken
against the retailer for selling mouldy sausage rolls and a fine of £10
with five guineas' costs was imposed.
2. Food Premises.
There has been an improving standard of hygiene in food shops in
the Borough over a number of years, and in many premises now the
proprietor is choosing to reconstruct and re-equip food rooms rather
than patch and repair them as was the practice in the immediate
post-war years.
Table 29 shows the broad headings under which food premises were
improved in the past year. In general, excellent co-operation has been
maintained with proprietors of food businesses, and in only two cases
were legal proceedings necessary where premises failed to conform to
the standards laid down in the Food Hygiene (General) Regulations,
1960. In one case fines totalling £155 with 16 guineas' costs were
imposed against a baker and in the second case a fine of £24 with
£16 costs was imposed against a restaurant proprietor.
3. Food Sampling.
One hundred and twenty-six samples were procured during the year
of which 15 were shown to be irregular. The Public Anaylst (D. D.
Moir, Esq., M.Sc., F.R.I.C.) has at all times given most helpful advice
and his continued interest has contributed in great measure to the
usefulness of this branch of public health work.
As in past years most of the irregular samples failed to satisfy the
Labelling of Food Order either in the description of the product or in