London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Feltham 1949
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Feltham]
This page requires JavaScript
14
The failure in respect of the phosphatase test was
attributable to a plant failure. The methylene blue
failures were isolated ones except for the six mentioned
previously and for a series of four samples of South
Devon Milk taken from one company. In this particular
case the very hot weather being experienced at the. time
no doubt contributed to the failures. The milk was
withdrawn from sale for a time, at any rate in this area.
One hundred and forty-one samples of ice cream
were taken, and were submitted to the Public Health
Laboratory at Epsom. Three were of a type which could
not be graded as a methylene blue reading was impossible
due to colouring matter in the ice cream, but they
were negative in coliforms. The other one hundred and
thirty-eight were graded as follows:—
PROVISIONAL GRADES
| TOTAL | 1 | 1 & 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 138 | 50 | 78 | 37 | 23 |
| Percentage of total samples | 36.23 | 56.52 | 26.81 | 16.66 |
| Number in which Coliforms present in 1/10 ml. | 16 | 31 | 32 | 20 |
| Percentage in which Coliforms present | 32 | 39.74 | 86.48 | 86.95 |
| Number in which faecal B. Coli present | 1 | 4 | 12 | 3 |
| Percentage in which faecal B. Coli. present | 2 | 5.12 | 32.43 | 13.04 |
In addition nine samples of the water in which
servers were kept were taken and of these four were
satisfactory.
The results of the samples taken cannot be regarded
as representative of the ice cream sold in the area, as
there was a tendency to concentrate upon the sources
of unsatisfactory ice cream and to omit or many occasions
those ice creams which experience had shown to
be reliable.