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Section 16 of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, states:—"every dealer in ice-cream who in a street
or other place of public resort sells, or offers or exposes for sale, ice-cream from a stall, or from a cart,
barrow or other vehicle or from a basket, pail, tray or other container used without a stall or vehicle,
shall have his name and address legibly and conspicuously displayed on the stall, vehicle or container, as
the case may be." The Council has extended the above section to all kinds of food.
Under Section 279 of the Middlesex County Council Act, 1944, hawkers of meat, fish, fruit and
vegetables and their storage premises require to be registered. At the end of the year 71 hawkers were on
the register.
Municipal Restaurants.—One municipal restaurant was open till 30th September, 1950. The
restaurant provided meals for some schools and for the "meals on wheels" scheme and the total mid-day
dinners supplied was 15,232. The restaurant also provided light refreshments and on occasions catered
for functions held in the Isleworth Public Hall. No complaint of the food served in this restaurant reached
the Health Department.

The sample of "English Dairy Fed Pork" was found to be jellied pig intestines. The firm concerned
was fined £5 with £5 5s. costs and the manager fined £5 for aiding and abetting the sale.
Food Hygiene Campaign.—In the years immediately prior to the war considerable progress
was being made towards hygienic methods of handling, storing and transporting food. In competition
among themselves and against overseas products the trade was taking considerable interest and generally
co-operating well with local sanitary authorities. Further the public were showing some discrimination,
and this stimulated the trade to aim at higher standards. The developments in the canning and processing
of foods had brought home to the trade the paramount importance of cleanliness. Within the limits of the
existing legislation local sanitary authorities had been active in trying to improve the general standard of
hygiene in regard to food. The Food and Drugs Act, 1938, increased their powers, but unfortunately did
not become operative till October, 1939, and before then war had come.
The war brought many difficulties. Customers and the trade became interested largely in quantity
rather than quality ; shortages of material and labour resulted in premises not being kept up to standard,
and in the employment of unskilled staff ; black-out, air raids, etc., all contributed to the gradual lowering
of standards and there was little that Health Departments could do to prevent this. When hunger or fear
of hunger stalked abroad, when the trade had to take what food they could get and when the nation was
lighting for survival the necessities of peace time were often regarded as needless refinements in war.
Another important war-time development was the great increase in the establishment of works
and school canteens, municipal restaurants and other catering establishments. Many of these were started
in unsuitable and cramped premises with make-shift equipment and untrained staff. This development
ol communal feeding soon revealed an inherent danger—carelessness in the kitchen endangered the health
oi many people. Infection of food in a domestic kitchen exposes a few to risk, but in a school or works
canteen large numbers may be affected. It is difficult to get reliable information on which to base an
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