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the number of meals prepared. This tends towards bad siting of the
equipment, to a breaking down of the system of a properly run
catering business especially during rush periods, and to a greater
difficulty in maintaining a state of cleanliness.
Cookers, steamers, etc. which in well-planned kitchens should
be sited in the centre of the room to give adequate space for proper
cleansing were found to be fixed within inches of a wall rendering
the cleansing of the rear of the equipment, walls and floor almost
an impossibility. Space allocated between the separate pieces of
the equipment was also limited, creating a similar difficulty in the
cleansing of the intervening space, and of the sides of the
equipment.
It was stressed at the Royal Sanitary Institute Congress 1951
that the planning of all catering establishments, canteens, etc.,
should be carefully scrutinised by the Public Health Department and
that all plans for such establishments should be discussed jointly
by officials from the Planning Department and the Health Department,
and this liaison is now an established arrangement in the Borough,
plans for new kitchens being studied by the staff of the Borough
Engineer & Surveyor' s and Health Departments together.
Whilst the floors of the kitchens were on the whole kept in a
reasonable state of cleanliness, the walls, ceilings, windows and
woodwork had not always received the attention necessary to keep
them in a clean condition, in some cases years had elapsed between
even the washing down of these parts.
The cleansing of the cutlery, crockery and other utensils was
on the whole satisfactory, but more use of detergents and of the
two sink method was desirable.
Details of inspections are as follows:-
Number of first inspections 292
Number of premises found satisfactory 101
Number of businesses discontinued 10
Number of premises unsatisfactory l8l
Number of revisits 232
Number of premises rendered fit within
a short period 124
Notices served and complied with:-
Served Complied with
Preliminary Notices 18 10
Clean Food Letters(Food & Drugs Act) 72 50
Verbal Notices 75 58
Letters (advisory) 19 6
TOTALS 184 124
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