Hygiene in restaurants and public houses.

Clean food 159 partly possible to legislate about the latter. It would be interesting to know whether more outbreaks of food poisoning begin in homes than in public eating-places. Where home hygiene is poor, the family has often a high resistance, but where homes are clean, immunity is probably acquired late, or not at all. This means, in effect, that a rising standard of hygiene in homes makes the public eating-place proportionately more dangerous. Other points which have not been mentioned include the whole problem of washing up; those already listed are not new, but they are the kind which still have to be stressed to the majority of food handlers. There are, certainly, food factories, canteens, shops and homes where good food hygiene is practised, but they are in the minority. Unfortunately, clean-food campaigns do not achieve spectacular results, but they may encourage the housewife, who is difficult to reach, to carry over, to her own handling of food in the home, her new awareness of clean food handling. Canteen manageresses are usually trained people, but a little propaganda now and then, will help them to keep alive their enthusiasm. And so, the majority of food handlers still require regular, well-directed, educational propaganda to persuade them to handle food with care.