[Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, Andover Borough.

  • Andover (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, Andover Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/30 (page 16)
    -16- I repeat the observations made in my 1943 report that having regard to the varying provisional clossificati .ns for milk containers suggested by numerous authorities and organisations throughout the country, it would appear that the time is opportune for investigation by the Government Departments concerned with a view to the adoption of an official standard. Manufacture and Sale of Ice-cream The manufacture, storage and sale of ice-cream is controlled by the Registration of premises under Section 14 of the Food & Drugs Act, 1938 and also by the provisions of the Ice-cream (Heat Treatment etc.) Regulations, 1947, and deals with heat treatment, cooling and storage and the protection of the ice- cream from contamination. Four premises within the Borough are registered under the. Food and Drugs Act, 1938 for the manufacture of ice-cream. Thirty premises are registered for the storage and sale of ice-cream and in addition tc the ice-cream manufactured within the Borough the product of no fewer than ten factories situated outside the Borough is sold on these premises. Ice-cream is also being sold at most restaurants, cinemas and canteens, which premises do not require to be registered under the provisions of the Act. The temperature of ice-cream offered for sale in cinemas needs to be watched especially where trays are used. An insulated container using dry-ice seems to be the answer. Frequent inspections are made of all premises, whether registered or not, in order to ascertain that hygienic conditions are maintained and the legal requirements as to temperatures are observed. Notices reminding persons to keep their hands clean and particularly to always wash their hands after using the sanitary conveniences, are posted in suitable positions on all premises. There is no legal standard laid down as respects the bacteriological, purity of ice-cream and the Minister of Health in a circular dated 18th April 1947 stated that he was still not satisfied that there is any test, the reliability of which is sufficiently established to justify its use as a statutory test, but drew attention to a form of methylene blue reduction test adapted for testing ice-cream and used as a basis for defining four grades of bacteriological cleanliness. It was suggested that if, out of the four grades recommended, ice-cream consistantly fails to reach grades one and two, it would be reasonable to regard this as indicating defects of manufacture or of handling which call for further investigation. One hundred and thirty two samples of ice-cream were submitted for bacteriological examinati jn by the methylene blue reduction test at the Public Health Laboratory, Winchester, with the result that:- 109 samples were placed in Provisional Gre.de 1. 13 samples were placed in Provisional Grade 2. 5 samples were placed in Provisional Grade 3. 5 samples were placed in Pr~visiona.l Grade 4 It can be said that the test still proves to be very useful and improvements have resulted from advisory work on premises where samples ta.ken have failed to reach Grade 1 and 2,