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80
is deemed to be observed unless there is visible dirt, and although
the meaning one would like to apply to these provisions from the
public health point of view is that there should be no difficulty in
keeping clean, the legal construction placed upon these words is
apparently "is it possible to keep clean."
I have devoted considerable space in my last two Annual
Reports to this problem of food contamination, and it is not
necessary for me to again refer in detail to all the difficulties which
have been encountered. Apart from bacterial infection the last
few years have shown considerable increase in complaints of contamination
of food by the presence of foreign bodies, a state of
affairs which must be due mainly to carelessness in preparation
and manufacture. There have been instances of pieces of a plastic
scraper being found in a doughnut, and rivets, beetles, glass, nails,
etc., in bread and cakes. Details of such complaints received
during 1950 are given in the section of the Report dealing with
the supervision of food.
As the danger of food poisoning lies to a considerable extent in
the consumption of food which has become bacterially infected but
shown no signs of its unfitness, the prevention of food contamination
plays an increasingly prominent part in the work of the Public
Health Department.
The Council's concern at the unsatisfactory conditions prevailing
in many of the food premises in the borough was expressed
in their action in 1949 when, after consideration of a report on the
subject which I had submitted to them, they decided to increase
the number of district sanitary inspectors and reduce the sizes of
the sanitary districts in order to permit the district inspectors to
give greater assistance in the supervision of food premises.
The success attending the efforts of the Public Health Department
to secure the preparation and service of food under hygienic
conditions will depend largely upon strict cleanliness, both personal
and with regard to utensils, being observed by all persons engaged
in the manipulation and preparation of food and by the public
demanding the necessary improvements.
It would seem that the public are becoming a little more conscious
of the need for food hygiene than they have been in the
past, and it is certain that they would be more so were it not for
the fact that as regards the majority of catering establishments the
rooms in which food is prepared and the utensils washed, and where
much of the contamination takes place are hidden from the public
eye. Nevertheless, the public can co-operate with the department
by refusing to eat in or shop at dirty food premises or to eat food
served on or with dirty utensils.