Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hillingdon]
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Details of these complaints were as follows:
Food | Foreign Matter | Mould | Type of Foreign Body |
---|---|---|---|
Milk | 26 | Dirty milk bottles, etc. | |
Butter | 1 | Excess salt | |
Cheese | 1 | Insect | |
Bread | 16 | 19 | Piece of plastic; dough deposits; edible oil; string; wire; insects |
Bacon | 2 | 1 | Maggots |
Canned Meat | 2 | 6 | Insects; solder |
Cooked Meat and Meat Products | 10 | 6 | Stone; glass; paper; pellet |
Meat Pies | 1 | 10 | Rubber band |
Fruit (canned) | 3 | 2 | Lint; rust |
Fish | 6 | 2 | Parasites |
Vegetables | 6 | 7 | Insects; wire |
Cereals | 8 | Insects | |
Sweets | 2 | 2 | Maggots |
Confectionery | 11 | 6 | String; bolt; ants |
Other foods | 13 | 2 | Centipede; wire; insects |
108 | 67 | ||
Total: 175 food complaints. |
Seven prosecutions were taken as a result of food complaints; details are set out in the following table. A further six prosecutions are awaiting court hearings at the time of writing the report.
Offence | Statute | Trade of Defendant | Fine | Costs | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Selling a mouldy cake | Section 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955 | Grocers | £10 | £3 3s. | £13 3s. |
2. Selling mouldy cheese | Section 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955 | Grocers | £10 | £3 3s. | £13 3s. |
3. Selling loaf containing insect | Section 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955 | Baker | £25 | £25 | |
4. Selling a mouldy cake | Section 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955 | Confectioners | £10 | £8 | £18 |
5. Foreign matter in milk | Section 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955 | Wholesale Dairy | £20 | £9 | £29 |
6. Use of dirty bottle | Milk and Dairies (Gen.) Regulations, 1959, Regulation 27 | Wholesale Dairy | £20 | £5 | £25 |
7. Supplying unfit sausage meat | Section 8, Food and Drugs Act, 1955 | Wholesale Butchers | £20 | £10 | £30 |