Annual report on the health and medical services of the state of Queensland.

  • Queensland. Department of Health.
Date:
[1958]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the health and medical services of the state of Queensland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/128 (page 20)
    SECTION OF FOOD AND DRUGS. This section implements the parts of the Health Acts dealing with food and drugs, the Food and Drug Regulations, the Milksellers Regulations, the Health (Food Supply) Regula¬ tions, the Poisons Regulations and the Health (Insecticide) Regulations. The object of these laws is to ensure the proper sale of wholesome foodstuffs, to ensure that conditions of manufac¬ ture are hygienic, to ensure that packing and labelling requirements are carried out and that proper and safe control is exercised over the sale and handling of poisons and drugs. It has been a very busy year, during which the new Food and Drug Regulations were gazetted. These Regulations are now up to date and are a great improvement on the former Regulations, last gazetted in 1939. Possibly one of the major items of interest was the gazetting of a new set of Regulations, the Health (Food Hygiene) Regulations, which provide for the hygiene of the sale of foods at retail level. Local authorities have been charged with the implementation of these Regulations and, although it is possibly too early to gauge the full impact of them, evidence to date is that local authorities are undertaking their task with common sense and vigour. Milksellers Regulations were also re-drafted to keep abreast of modern requirements in hand¬ ling and dealing with milk and these regulations were also gazetted. It is considered that the new Regulations will result in the attainment of improved hygienic standarcls'in all aspects of the milk trade. Milk. The usual full attention has been again given to milk. A staff of two officers is continually engaged in milk-sampling operations at head¬ quarters and in the adjacent country areas, and officers regularly secure samples of milk from both pasteurised milk factories and retail vendors for bacteriological and chemical analysis, whilst regular inspections of the plant and premises of pasteurised milk factories are made. Such duties are also carried out in country towns by district officers and by metro¬ politan officers on tour. Furthermore, certain local authorities co-operate by submitting regular samples for analysis from milk factories in their respective areas. Results of such inspec¬ tions and sampling have proved most satisfac¬ tory and it is felt that milk supply is of a very high standard in this State. One of the major developments during the year was a survey by a Rockhampton dairy association of the possibility of inaugurating a regular supply of pasteurised milk to towns along the Central Western railway to Long- reach. The Department’s district officer has kept in close touch with the scheme and has collaborated with the association. The scheme has now been put into operation and its progress will be watched with interest. However, with the milk being produced at a new modern plant, which came into operation during the year, and its being transported under proper refrigerated conditions, there is no reason why the scheme should not succeed entirely and prove a boon to residents formerly deprived of liquid milk. The gazettal of the Food and Drug Regula¬ tions and the Milksellers Regulations finished the era of pre-dating of seals on bottled milk, both pasteurised and other. The law now requires that the day or the date of the month the milk was bottled must be shown on the seal. Companies generally were cpiick to gear their plants to the new requirements and few breaches have been detected. Details of samples secured for bacteriological and chemical analysis are shown respectively in the reports of the Director of the Laboratory of Microbiology and Pathology and of the Government Analyst. Prosecutions for the sale of milk adulterated with water were successfully undertaken in nineteen (19) instances, resulting in tines totalling £252 6s. and costs of £53 13s. (See Table XX.). TABLE XX. Prosecutions for Sale of Milk Adltlterated with Water—1957-195S. Date. Place. Pines. Costs. 1957— £ s. d. £ s. d. ] 9th July Millaa Millaa 10 0 0 1 15 0 19th July Millaa Millaa 10 0 0 1 15 0 19th July . Kingaroy 26 0 0 5 7 0 27th July Mount Isa . . 20 0 0 4 18 0 2nd September Roma 8 0 0 0 14 0 3rd September Rosewood 8 0 0 115 0 3rd September Rosewood 9 0 0 1 15 0 6th September Gympie 12 0 0 1 15 0 6th September Gympie 12 0 0 1 15 0 12th September Malanda 14 0 0 1 15 0 23rd October . . Palmwoods . . 17 0 0 7 0 0 27 th November Malanda 10 0 0 5 19 0 29th November Ingham 5 0 0 1 15 0 29th November Ingham 5 0 0 1 15 0 10th December Cairns 9 0 0 1 15 0 12th December Innisfail 11 6 0 2 9 0 1958 / 10th March Bundaberg . . 15 0 0 4 18 0 9th June . . .. . . .. Southport 40 0 0 3 3 0 20th June Bowen 11 0 0 1 15 0