BACTERIAL TESTS

Opunake Times, 22 August 1947, Page 1

BACTERIAL TESTS

EATING UTENSILS STARTLING EVIDENCE In spite of the Health Inspector’s (Mr. J. W. Brimblecombe) assurance that bacterial tests of cup, glasses, spoons and various eating and drinking utensils used in Opunake Hotels and eating- houses _had shown a remarkably low incidence of germ activity, the samples on view at last Tuesday’s meeting t of the Borough Conned certainly presented most effective and startling evidence in support of extreme care and cleanliness in washing, eating and drinking utensils, whether in public houses or in private homes. Accompanying the samples was a request from the Health department asking the council to participate in a scheme to make bacterial tests, two or three times a year, of utensils used in Opunake Hotels and public eating houses. Suitable 'sterile bottles containing the medium, prepared by tlie New Plymouth Hospital, would entail a cost of approximately £3 per year. The Town Clerk, Mr. H. E. Collins in explaining the method of making the tests emphatically declared that .the scheme was purely educational and would cast absolutely no reflection on the public houses concerned or lead to prosecutions. Indeed it was the departments desire to obtain full co-operation for the mutual benefit of all concerned. The Health Inspector would visit these premises and take random swabs from various utensils, said Mr. Collins, and these would be transferred to the medium in the sterile bottles, which would be sealed, appropriately labelled and left with the proprietors concerned. The action of the bacteria (if any) became plainly visible- after about a week. It was considered one of the most effective educational methods ever introduced by the Health Department, he added, and Councillors fully agreed with his observation.

The scheme was approved unanimously.