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Article
Publication date: 1 November 1946

The outbreak of typhoid fever which had been traced to a “carrier” of the fever germs may be given as a reason for the following note on the regulations relating to the…

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Abstract

The outbreak of typhoid fever which had been traced to a “carrier” of the fever germs may be given as a reason for the following note on the regulations relating to the manufacture of ice cream. This brief re‐statement of the regulations will serve to indicate the nature of the control exercised by the health authorities over a widely spread trade. It need hardly be pointed out that cream in the usually accepted sense of that term or its substitute containing a certain proportion of milk powder or skim milk is peculiarly liable to act as an agent in the dissemination of certain types of disease. “New regulations, the “Ice Cream (Heat Treatment) Regulations, 1946,” at present in draft, but operative from May 1st, 1947, deal with the sterilisation of the raw material and the retail sale in the finished and frozen state. Registration of premises, inspection by the local authority, combined with the goodwill of the trade, are obvious safeguards. The term “ice cream” possibly suggests to the average consumer a frozen mixture of cream—as that word is usually understood to mean—flavoured with the fresh juice or fresh‐fruit pulp of the name fruit. Such a mixture, if made from wholesome materials under hygienic conditions, would be a good, palatable luxury, and from the nature of the case seasonal. Most of us at some December midnight have had something called strawberry ice. The name stands, but the composition is rather a matter for speculation by the uninitiated. The term “cream” has been for many years applied to substances which though wholesome in themselves are not cream—vegetable fats, milk powder and the like—but they form the basis, so to speak, either in whole or in part of ice cream. There is in fact no official standard to define what is meant by ice cream, and the definition which we have ventured to offer must obviously be extended to apply to a large number of substances that do not of necessity consist either partly, still less wholly, of cream or of any substance whose origin is to be found in fruit of any kind. Ice cream, in fact, is a substance whose composition it seems may vary within wide and undefined limits. Thus the Ice Cream (Prohibition of the Manufacture and Sales) Order, 1942, says “‘Ice cream’ includes water ices.” The Ice Cream Transport Order (No. 305, March 22nd, 1945), prohibiting the export of ice cream to Great Britain from Northern Ireland, says: “Ice cream includes water ices and any article, whether frozen or chilled, and under whatever description it is sold, which is sufficiently similar to ice cream as to constitute a substitute for ice cream.” The statements just quoted seem to imply that ice cream may be made of almost anything as long as price, temperature and taste suit the requirements of the consumer. However, our concern is less to do with its composition as with regulations that have to do with the hygienic requirements of its manufacture. It may be pointed out that as things stand at present registration relates to premises and not to persons employed therein. Anyone can be employed in an ice cream factory, as he can be employed in any other kind of food factory. The matter of engaging him is left to the heads of the factory. They, as commonsense business people, with the interests of their business at heart, are not likely to engage anyone who is at sight obviously unfitted for the job. On the other hand, habits and health, especially the latter, become of peculiar importance when such a substance as ice cream is the object of manufacture. To make regulations as to the registration and inspection of premises, is one thing. It is not too easy to enforce such regulations. In the case of persons it is more delicate and difficult. If the offence be of habit it can be readily detected and dealt with. If of health, it becomes a matter for the Medical Officer of Health and his professional colleagues. Under Section 14 of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, which came into force on October 1st, 1939, all premises in which ice cream is sold, manufactured, or stored must be registered with the local authority. The purpose for which registration is sought—sale, storage, or manufacture—must be stated, and also the nature of other business, if any, that may be carried on on the premises. If the premises appear to the local authority to be unsuitable, registration may be refused, or, if previously granted, may be cancelled. Notice of the refusal to register, or to cancel registration, must be served on the applicant or tenant of the premises by the local authority, giving reasons for the act, and the applicant or tenant may then, if he wishes, request the local authority to show cause, for the reasons given by them, why they should refuse to register or wish to cancel registration.” It need hardly be pointed out that the sole reason for registration is to enable the local authority to satisfy themselves that hygienic conditions are complied with, such as cleanliness, light, ventilation, adequate water supply and sanitation in general. Though the conditions may be complied with there is still the more serious danger that may arise from “milk‐borne diseases,” a danger that is admittedly peculiarly acute when such a substance as ice cream is the subject of manufacture or storage. The Medical Officer of Health must therefore be informed by the manufacturer if any milk‐borne disease has occurred among persons living or working in or about the premises. We may hazard the guess that it may not always be easy for the manufacturer to obtain such certain knowledge. “Milk‐borne disease” means enteric fever (including typhoid or paratyphoid), dysentery, diphtheria, scarlet fever, acute inflammation of the throat, gastro‐enteritis, and undulant fever—a formidable list—and any other disease that may be declared milk‐borne by the Minister of Health. With the best will in the world on the part of everybody concerned the enforcement of this Order, and there can be obviously no half measures in doing so, presents difficulties that can only be adequately appreciated and discussed by medical practitioners who are conversant with the nature of the disease in general and with the particular conditions that led to its occurrence. Apart, however, from its purely medical aspect, and if we consider the manufacturer we find that if he has done his duty in this respect he may have his business brought to a standstill, or at least a part or even the whole of his stock destroyed. The Medical Officer of Health is very rightly empowered, in the interests of public health, which override all other considerations, to prohibit the use for human consumption of any substance likely to convey milk‐borne disease and to order either its removal or its destruction. Compensation can be paid to the manufacturer if the Medical Officer of Health, after further enquiry, be satisfied that the suspected substance is not injurious. His notice for destruction or removal must then be withdrawn. On the other hand, compensation will not be paid if the suspected substance was actually injurious, or was made on the premises while the order of the Medical Officer was still in force. If a person feels aggrieved by the decision of the local authority he may appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction. Any change in the occupation of registered premises must be notified to the local authority by the ingoing tenant if he intends to use such premises for the purpose for which they were registered. If at the commencement of the Act of 1938 a local Act was in force dealing with the conditions for registration of premises it may remain in force unless the Minister, at the request of the local authority, declares the 1938 Act, 14 (1), to be in place of it. The use of unregistered premises renders the offender liable to a fine not exceeding £20, and for a second offence a maximum penalty of £100 and for three months imprisonment. Every street seller of ice cream must have his name and address on the barrow or container. It may be added that hotels, clubs and inns are exempt from registration, and theatres, music halls and the like are also exempt unless they manufacture ice cream on the premises. The Order of 1942 prohibited the manufacture of ice cream in catering establishments or in institutions, meaning by these terms premises previously authorised to do so by licence from the Ministry of Food or by a Food Control Committee. Institutions or households were exempt from this Order if the ice cream manufactured was to be consumed on the premises. This Order was rescinded by an Order of November 16th, 1944, and manufacture was resumed from that date. This was certainly not due to any marked increase in the milk supply. The trade demand was and is at least in part met by a permitted substitute.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 48 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Book part
Publication date: 16 August 2023

Emmanuel Ogbu, Isaiah Adisa and Chiebuka Uzoebe Prince

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed movement restrictions and limited access to modern medical services, prompting the search for alternative solutions, such as indigenous herbal…

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed movement restrictions and limited access to modern medical services, prompting the search for alternative solutions, such as indigenous herbal medicines. In Southwest Nigeria, female herbal producers, often with limited economic resources, play a significant role in herbal medicine production. Despite facing multiple challenges, these producers have demonstrated remarkable creativity in navigating the barriers. However, without deliberate efforts to preserve their creative values, indigenous herbal businesses face the threat of extinction. This chapter investigates the resourcefulness of female herbal producers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Southwest Nigeria and proposes strategies for sustaining their trade. Qualitative data were collected to identify the treatment patterns and trade dynamics among female herbal producers in the region. The findings indicate that movement restrictions during the pandemic disrupted herbal producers' access to treatment materials, yet they managed to meet their communities' health needs. These women often serve as first responders and primary healthcare providers in many local communities in Southwest Nigeria, and collaboration with the government will further enhance their effectiveness. The sustainability of indigenous herbal medicine production and trade by women can become a pathway to promote women's economic empowerment in Nigeria if given the necessary support. The chapter concludes with policy recommendations for sustaining the ingenuity of female herbal producers in Nigeria.

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Casebook of Indigenous Business Practices in Africa
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-251-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1994

Derek Mozley

Three events of significance to this country took place in 1899 – the British Food Journal was launched, Australia retained the Ashes, and the Boer War hostilities commenced. If…

1012

Abstract

Three events of significance to this country took place in 1899 – the British Food Journal was launched, Australia retained the Ashes, and the Boer War hostilities commenced. If challenged on the order of their importance, cricketers and Empire‐builders may be excused their preference. However, looking at it purely from the standpoint of pro bono publico, the dispassionate observer must surely opt for the birth of a certain publication as being ultimately the most beneficial of the three.

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British Food Journal, vol. 96 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1914

The subject of food and drug legislation is again before Parliament. It is proposed, under MR. JOHN BURNS' Food and Drugs Bill (see this Journal, August, 1913), to empower the…

Abstract

The subject of food and drug legislation is again before Parliament. It is proposed, under MR. JOHN BURNS' Food and Drugs Bill (see this Journal, August, 1913), to empower the Local Government Board to make Regulations which shall define an article of food or a drug with regard to its nature, substance, and quality. The Board will only issue Regulations of this kind after making such enquiry as in its opinion may be necessary.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 4 May 2018

Mauliza and Julia Fitriany

Purpose – This study aimed to describe the typhoid fever profiles based on the examination of IgM anti Salmonella in Cut Meutia Hospital, North Aceh, Indonesia, in 2016–2017…

Abstract

Purpose – This study aimed to describe the typhoid fever profiles based on the examination of IgM anti Salmonella in Cut Meutia Hospital, North Aceh, Indonesia, in 2016–2017.

Design/Methodology/Approach – IgM anti-Salmonella is a serological test which more quickly and accurately diagnoses typhoid fever. This is a cross-sectional study that used secondary data from medical records of a pediatric unit of patients diagnosed with typhoid fever from September 2016 to September 2017. This research identified 469 children based on age, sex, length of stay (LOS), and IgM anti-Salmonella test by univariate analysis.

Findings – The results showed that 56 children (12%) aged 1–5 years old, 164 children (34.9%) aged 6–11 years old, and 246 children (53.1%) > 12 years old, and among them, 46.8% were male. There were 53.7% who had +≥ 6 of IgM anti-Salmonella test and 46.3% had +4 to +5. We found that LOS less than 7 days was 81.4% and LOS more than 7 days was 18.6%. Typhoid fever profiles in Cut Meutia Hospital were common in children aged >12 years old, females, had +≥ 6 of IgM anti-Salmonella test, and LOS less than 7 days.

Research Limitations/ImplicationsTyphoid fever is an acute systemic infection caused by Salmonella enteric, a serotype typhi. Typhoid fever commonly attacks children and the symptoms experienced were lighter than adults.

Practical Implications – LOS in children with typhoid fever in this research concluded that there were more children with LOS < 7 days compared with those with a duration of ≥ 7 days, that is 382 children (81.4%) and 87 children (18.6%), respectively.

Originality value – From this research, it is concluded that there were 217 children (46.3%) diagnosed with typhoid fever with IgM anti-Salmonella test ranging from +4 up to +5 and 252 children (53.7%) with IgM anti-Salmonella test ≥ 6.

Details

Proceedings of MICoMS 2017
Type: Book
ISBN:

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 September 2021

Pedro de Alcântara Bittencourt César, Bruna Tronca and Thaíse Zattera Marchesini

Epidemiological problems often result in new panoramas and challenges for tourism. The hospitality industry and activity in Brazil, and on the planet, have created new…

Abstract

Epidemiological problems often result in new panoramas and challenges for tourism. The hospitality industry and activity in Brazil, and on the planet, have created new architectural forms to handle the sanitary needs that are required, at every moment, due to health problems that arise. At the end of the nineteenth century and up to the twentieth century, the creation of places to host sick, and even healthy people seeking treatment and safety, gave rise to numerous tourist destinations around the world. In this way, it is to point out these practices in different medium-sized locations in Brazil, developed through – and in function of –installation of these accommodations, such as Campos do Jordão (SP), Petropolis (RJ), Garanhuns (PE) and São Francisco de Paula (RS). This research seeks to explore, by means of a bibliographic reference survey, about this demand. It is believed that these, associated since the tuberculosis crisis, after a century and a half, are able to provide answers to the world regarding the current urban and architectural challenge established with the new COVID-19 pandemic. This time, as in previous times, new paradigms of uncertainty emerge across the planet, also leading to new challenges for hosting equipment. These, today, are no longer seen as possibilities for treatment or distancing, but to meet a new global approach to health security. In presenting this panorama, this research seeks to achieve and present new expectations for the lodging industry in terms of new and future protocols and post-epidemic social demands.

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Virus Outbreaks and Tourism Mobility
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-335-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1901

The great difficulties which attach to the fixing of legal standards of composition for food products have now to be grappled with by the Departmental Committee appointed by the…

67

Abstract

The great difficulties which attach to the fixing of legal standards of composition for food products have now to be grappled with by the Departmental Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture to consider and determine what regulations should be made by the Board, under Section 4 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, with respect to the composition of butter. As we predicted in regard to the labours of the Milk and Cream Standards Committee, so we predict now that the Butter Committee will be unable to do more than to recommend standards and limits, which, while they will make for the protection of the public against the sale of grossly adulterated articles, will certainly not in any way insure the sale of butter of really satisfactory, or even of fair, composition. Standards and limits established by law for the purposes of the administration of criminal Acts of Parliament must of necessity be such as to legalise the sale of products of a most inferior character, to which the term “genuine” may still by law be applied as well as to legalise the sale of adulterated and sophisticated products so prepared as to come within the four corners of the law. It is, of course, an obvious necessity that official standards and limits should be established, and the Board of Agriculture are to be congratulated upon the manner in which they are endeavouring to deal with these extremely knotty problems; but it is important that misconception on the part of the public and the trade with respect to the effect of the regulations to be made should be as far as possible prevented. All that can be hoped for is that the conclusions at which the Committee may find themselves compelled to arrive will not be such as to place too high and too obvious a premium upon the sale of those inferior and scientifically‐adulterated products which are placed in such enormous quantities on the food market.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 3 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1901

One of the commonest excuses put forward in defence of the practice of treating milk, butter, meat, and other foods with ‘preservative’ drugs no longer possesses even the…

Abstract

One of the commonest excuses put forward in defence of the practice of treating milk, butter, meat, and other foods with ‘preservative’ drugs no longer possesses even the appearance of validity. Several of the large railway companies are adding refrigerator vans in considerable numbers to their rolling‐stock, and this fact should make it no longer possible for defendants to plead that the necessity of sending food‐products a long distance by rail involves the necessity of mixing preservative chemicals with them. Although the excuse referred to will not bear examination, it is a very specious one, and in those instances where evidence has not been brought forward to refute it, it has produced some effect on the minds of magistrates and others. It cannot be too often pointed out that such substances as boracic acid, salicylic acid, and formaldehyde are dangerous drugs, and that their unacknowledged presence in articles of food constitutes a serious danger to the public. Such substances are not foods, and are not natural constituents of any food. In most instances they are purposely introduced into food‐products to avoid the expense attending the proper production, preparation, and distribution of the food, or to conceal the inferior quality of an article by masking the signs of commencing decomposition or incipient putrefaction, and thus to enable a dishonest producer or vendor to palm off as fresh and wholesome an article which may be not only of bad quality, but absolutely dangerous to the consumer. The use of these substances, in any quantity whatsoever, and the sale of articles containing them, without the fullest and clearest disclosure of their presence, is as gross and as dangerous a form of adulteration as any which has at any time been exposed. In no single instance can it be shown that these drugs are, to quote the words of the Act of 1875, matters or ingredients “required for the preparation or production of a food as an article of commerce,” nor, of course, can it be contended that such substances are “extraneous matters with which the food is unavoidably mixed during the process of collection or preparation.” In reality, even under our inadequate and unsatisfactory adulteration laws, through which the proverbial coach‐and‐four can be so easily driven in so many directions, there ought to be no loophole of escape for the deliberate and dishonest drugger of foods. While the presence of preservative chemicals in any quantity whatever in articles of food constitutes adulteration, wherever the quantity is sufficient to allow the production of the specific “preservative” effect of the substance added, that fact alone is enough to make the food so drugged a food which must be regarded as injurious to the health of the consumer—in view of the inhibitory effect which, by its very nature, the antiseptic must produce on the process of digestion. To our knowledge the food market in this country is flooded with all sorts of inferior food‐products which are rarely dealt with under the Adulteration Acts, and which are loaded with so‐called preservatives. There will be no adequate protection for the public against the consumption of this injurious rubbish until the consumer sees the advantage of insisting upon an authoritative and permanent guarantee of quality with his goods, and until manufacturers of the better class at length find it to be a necessity for their continued prosperity that they should supply, apart entirely from their own statements, an independent and powerful guarantee of this kind.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 3 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1949

The Milk and Dairies Regulations 1949 No. 1588 came into force on the first day of October of this year. They are intended to ensure that the milk delivered to the consumer shall…

Abstract

The Milk and Dairies Regulations 1949 No. 1588 came into force on the first day of October of this year. They are intended to ensure that the milk delivered to the consumer shall be in all respects satisfactory. The consumer being every man, woman and child in the kingdom. Supervision of the kind referred to or implied in these regulations is essential if the end aimed at is to be achieved. Hitherto legislation in this respect has been somewhat of the piecemeal variety. Now it is sought to bring into one comprehensive and far‐reaching scheme all the activities which relate to the production, preparation and delivery of milk. Under the term milk is included cream, butter, skimmed or separated milk, and so forth. To give full effect to the regulations three Ministries are concerned: the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Food. They will work in collaboration with each other throughout the kingdom. They will form, in fact, one central controlling authority so far as the milk supply—using that term in the most general sense—is concerned.

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British Food Journal, vol. 51 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1981

At the commencement of this decade, leaving behind the “striking seventies”, we christened it the “anxious eighties”, for there was a profound disquiet and uncertainty among most…

Abstract

At the commencement of this decade, leaving behind the “striking seventies”, we christened it the “anxious eighties”, for there was a profound disquiet and uncertainty among most of the population, a fear that things were going to get worse, but they could have hardly expected the catastrophic events of the year 1981. The criteria of quality of life are its richness, grace, elegance; by the promise it contains; inspiration and purpose, hope, determination (to survive, to make certain that the evildoer is not permitted to succeed), love of one's country — pro patria, of other days.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 83 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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