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24
cent by weight of sand and siliceous matter. His comments were "In
my opinion the quantity of extraneous sandy matter, although not
necessarily harmful, was such to render the article unsuitable for human
consumption". As the grit had obviously been introduced in the
country of origin, the action taken in this case was to inform the Food
Hygiene Division of the Ministry of Food, together with the firm importing
the article and the Health Authority in which the wholesalers
warehouse is situated, of the facts. The whole of the cake had been
quickly sold which prevented seizure of any remaining stocks.
N.B.—With the exception of instance 6, all the articles mentioned
in the above notes were produced outside this area.
ICE CREAM.
Seventy-nine samples were submitted for testing by the
methylene blue method and, of these, seventy-four reached grades
I or II standards. Five were placed in grade III and none in the
low category of grade IV. As I have previously explained the
methylene blue test does not provide a guarantee of safety but it
does serve as a sample and practical method of grading ice-cream
according to its degree of bacterial cleanliness and samples
which consistently fail to reach grades I or II give reasonable
grounds to indicate defects in manufacture or handling requiring
further investigation. The results are not quite as good as last
year but the difference is hardly appreciable and can still be said
to be very gratifying. The certificate giving the results of testing
has the following note appended:—
"Owing to the numerous factors governing the hygienic
quality of ice-cream it is unwise to pay too much attention
to the bacteriological results of any single sample. Judgement
should be based rather on a series of samples. It is
suggested over a six monthly period 50 per cent of vendors
samples should fall into grade 1, 80 per cent into grades I
or II, not more than 20 per cent into grade III and none
into grade IV".

It may be noted that all five samples placed in Grade III
were manufactured outside this Borough. Three of these occurred
during a short period as a result of follow-up sampling.