[Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Pontypool U.D.C.

  • Pontypool (Wales). Urban District Council.
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Pontypool U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ICE-CREAM SAMPLING > In the course of 1951 the department’s inspectors took 55 samples of ice-cream which were submitted to the Public Health Laboratory, Newport, for bacteriological examination. The results were very satisfactory and indicate that the quality of this product sold in the district has continued to improve from the bacterio- logical aspect since 1949. This continued improvement once again reflects the valuable work of your inspectors in this connection and a very high measure of co-operation from the producers in this area. The grading of 37 samples taken during the 1949 season was as follows : Grade I Grade II Grade III Grade IV Total Samples 12 4 4 17 37 The grading of 66 samples taken during the 1950 season was as follows : Grade I Grade II Grade III Grade IV Total samples 34 17 7 8 66 The grading of 55 samples taken during the 1951 season was as follows : Grade I Grade II Grade III Grade IV Total samples 36 12 4 3 55 It must be borne in mind in connection with these standards of cleanliness for ice-cream that these grades are provisional only and merely indicate whether or not the production is being carried out in a cleanly manner. It is unwise to attach too much significance to the bacteriological results on any one sample alone, but rather to base judgement on the results taken from a series of samples. The Public Health Laboratory Service recommends that the interpretation of bacteriological examination and grading of ice- cream be as follows : When samples are taken from a vendor over a six monthly period, 50% of his samples should fall into Grade I, 80% into Grade I or II, not more than 20% into Grade III, and none into Grade IV.