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SECTION E. — INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION
OF FOOD.
1. Food Complaints.
Forty one complaints alleging unfitness in food sold or exposed for
sale 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of the article has expired, so that such foods can be withdrawn from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.
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 £235 with 70 guineas costs were
imposed against a baker; in the second case, a restaurant proprietor
and his manager were fined a total of £264 with 80 guineas costs and
the magistrates made an order disqualifying the defendants from
carrying on the business for three months.
3. Food Sampling.
One hundred and twenty-two samples were procured during the
year of which 6 were shown to be irregular. The Public Analyst
(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
the list of ingredients, but in all cases it proved possible to reach
agreement with the manufacturers or importers to remedy the irregularity
revealed by sampling.
4. Ice-Cream.
There are three ice-cream manufacturers in the Borough; one makes
ice-cream by heat-treating the product for 10 minutes at a temperature
not less than 160°F; the other two receive heat-treated ice-cream in
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