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FOOD INSPECTION. A constant watch is kept upon the shops, stalls and cafes where
food is sold together with the factories where food products are made and the kitchens of
restaurants and other places wherein food is prepared.
Comparatively little trouble was experienced during the year. It was found necessary
to Institute proceedings against retailers in four cases, in each case unsoundness was the
cause of the proceedings. No cases of the sale, or exposure for sale, of diseased food were
discovered. The Clean Food Byelaws made under Section 15, of the Food & Drugs Act, 1938,
have proved of service. They cover certain matters not previously within the scope of
available legislation. They permit the application of a certain gentle but persistent
pressure on careless traders in the interests of clean food handling generally.
In six cases proceedings were instituted for offences against the bye-laws.
One retailer of tinned foods has been the cause of some anxiety. In this case, tinned
foods which are obviously rejects from the better classes of retailers, are sold by retail on
vacant sites. The risk here is that tins which appear merely to be damaged may in fact
contain unsound food. In the case of fish and meat products the tins call for careful examination
and the maintenance of constant supervision. This annoys the retailer who claims that
it Injures his trade but when it is pointed out to him that he does not require the permission
of the department to deal in better quality goods he fails to respond. The penalties which
the law provides to-day for practising this kind of deception on the public are both inadequate
and difficult to enforce. In earlier days this trader would have been paraded through the town
with his own tins festooned around his neck, afterwards pilloried and his food burnt under him.
One prosecution was undertaken under Section 13 of the Food & Drugs Act, 1938, but as
the structural works required had been carried out at the date of hearing the summons was
withdrawn on payment of costs.
A list of the foods condemned during the year will be found on pages 20 and 21.

The law relating to the sale of ice cream has been improved in that there is now a
minimum standard of fat content but it is still unsatisfactory in respect of the purity
of the product
FOOD & DRUGS ACT. During the year 1,2.18 samples were taken for analysis by the Food
& Drugs Inspector as follows:-
Milk (including 34 school milks) 381, Food & Drugs 831, Ice cream 5, meat pie for
bacteriological examination 1.
19