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40
INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD AND
FOOD PREMISES.
Food Premises and Clean Food Campaign.
The capital outlay required to enter the food trade business
may be considerable, but money expended in suitably equipping
premises and maintaining such premises, and the food therein,
in clean and satisfactory condition, is always a first-class insurance
against the loss which a food trader may suffer when legal action
taken by the Council for some defect or contravention is followed by
adverse publicity in the local press.
Personal hygiene, health, cleanliness and tidiness are most
important factors in the everyday life of persons engaged in all
branches of the food trade, for to a very great extent it is upon the
unremitting attention given to these factors that the health of the
community depends.
There is no law at present which compels any person contemplating
entry to the food business to notify the Borough Council
of such intention before trading has actually taken place, unless the
premises used for a particular trading, or the person carrying on
the trade, are subject to registration or licensing with the local
authority (ice cream premises, dairies, premises used for the
preparation or manufacture of sausages, potted, pressed pickled
or preserved food intended for sale, etc.), and it is only since food
rationing came into force that this department has had advance
information of the proposed establishment of intended food businesses.
This notification is received from the local Food Office, as
a voluntary domestic arrangement, when persons have applied to
that office for a licence to deal in rationed foods. By such a system
it is possible for the Public Health Department to obtain details
of proposals from intending food traders and to advise on conditions
necessary to ensure satisfactory working.
It would be of considerable advantage to all concerned if
powers were in force requiring every potential trader in foods to
give notice to the Public Health Department of his intention to
trade, and to submit detailed plans, so that by consultation with
the appropriate officials of the department, assurance could be
given that the trade and premises would conform to the law and to
any local requirements. Such a procedure carried out before
commencement of actual trading would save inconvenience,
irritation and expense to the trader at a later date.
The housewife, too, has a duty to protect her own small community.
She is a great force in the creation of public opinion for
clean and safe food. She should be able to recognise fresh, stale