Clean catering : a handbook on premises, equipment, and practices for the promotion of hygiene in catering establishments.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Health.
Date:
1963
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clean catering : a handbook on premises, equipment, and practices for the promotion of hygiene in catering establishments. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/112 (page 1)
    PREMISES Section A LOCATION AND SURROUNDINGS Some catering establishments are not ideally located for the proper practice of food hygiene and their proprietors now find that measures to protect their food are practicable but expensive. Anyone proposing to set up a new business will naturally examine possible sites primarily from the point of view of the amount of the rent and other overheads, the cost of conversion or equipping, and the number of potential customers ; but considerations of hygiene should not be overlooked. Adequate lighting, ventilation and water supply should be regarded as essential. The immediate neighbourhood should be examined for the presence of noxious trades and practices ; from the point of view of hygiene an unpleasant smell is not so important as whether the air is charged with smoke or other dirty particles, or whether the surroundings contain potential or actual breeding-grounds for rats, mice, flies or harmful insects. If prospective premises form part of a large building, the location of the water supply and other common services should be examined ; and it should be ascertained whether the sanitary conveniences and wash basins to be used by the staff are conveniently sited and adequate in number. Attention should be given to the facilities for handling and storing foodstuffs and to the routes by which the food wotld reach the establishment and the refuse would be removed. The inward route, at least, should be under the caterer’s own control; dark and potentially dirty passages and alleyways should be avoided. Refuse should not have to be carried through the kitchen or dining rooms. Premises which have the shortest routes for bringing in food and taking out garbage are to be preferred. Underground kitchens present special difficulties. It is important that their windows should not open on to areas or forecourts so narrow that dirt or noxious matter could be kicked, thrown, dropped or blown into unclean- able recesses or even on to the food. Underground premises may be liable to flooding and drainage backflow, and they also necessitate special ventilation and lighting. The prevention of infestation is also more difficult. The advice of the local public health department or a consultant should always be sought before taking over such premises. Premises where food is stored need to be cool and dry. If a caterer is considering setting up in an old building or a building in a remote rural area, it would be worth his while to make certain that the walls have been built with a proper and effective damp proof course. Damp proof courses can be inserted by a technique of cutting out limited horizontal sections of wall and placing damp proof material in the gap. This is possible whatever the wall thickness but obviously increases in price per yard run with the thickness of walling. Vertical damp proof courses can also be used to |