GERMS IN HOTEL GLASSES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27674, 2 June 1955, Page 9

GERMS IN HOTEL GLASSES

Report To Auckland Committee CONDITIONS IN SOME “ DISASTROUS ” (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 1. Bacteria tests had shown disastrous conditions of glasses in some Auckland hotel bars, said the chairman of the Auckland Licensing Committee (Mr L. G. H. Sinclair, S.M.) at the annual meeting of the committee today. But hygiene standards in other bars had been found to be excellent, Mr Sinclair said. Mr C. F. Pauli, chief sanitary inspector of the Auckland City Council, had taken swabs half an inch down the inside and outside of groups of five glasses washed and ready for use in each hotel. Two or three hotels showed bacteria counts of 19 in the public and 43 in the private bars—and anything below 100 is excellent. All those hotels were fitted with glass-washing machines. But in one hotel. Mr Sinclair said, the bacteria were “uncountable.” At another hotel there were 500,000 bacteria in one glass. Some counts from hotels where glass-washing machines were installed were also “quite bad.” This could be attributable either to insufficient heat in the water, or contamination from dirty towels. “This committee takes a serious view of the hygiene question,” he said, “and we warn licensees that we will require every hotel to be properly fitted with glass-washing facilities .by the end of this next licensing period. “Hotels can expect non-renewal of . licences until the requirements have been complied with.”