Report on bread and flour / Food Standards Committee.

  • Great Britain. Food Standards Committee.
Date:
1960
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on bread and flour / Food Standards Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/80 (page 15)
    to be sufficiently high to accommodate all the variables met with in practice and would therefore be far above the general average. There would, of course, be little danger of a new process or substance being introduced into bread making which would have the effect of allowing bread to be sold with an increased moisture content if our recommendation for a permitted list of ingredients were accepted. 67. We think that there is some misconception in the public mind about the meaning of ‘steam baking’’. The idea that “‘steam baking’’ means baking by live steam is a completely mistaken one. “Steam baking”’ simply means that closed pipes in which heated steam circulates are present in the oven. The prime purpose of this system is to obtain the better equalisation of temperature throughout the entire oven in order to obtain more uniform baking. When live steam is injected into the actual oven atmosphere, it is mainly done in the initial stage of baking when sufficient steam has not been generated from the bread being baked to assist in the glazing. The amount of steam present in the interior of bakers’ ovens differs little from the amounts present inside domestic ovens when bread is being baked. Milk Bread 68. We were asked to report on milk bread in advance of our main report. This was done and a copy of our Report on Milk Bread is printed at Appendix VI. We recommended that milk bread should be required to contain not less than 4-2% by weight of whole milk solids or skim milk solids, calculated upon the weight of the loaf. We have since considered the representations made on our report and we have reached the conclusion that the calculation in paragraph 18 thereof is too restricted and that a figure of 3-6 % should be substituted for 4-2 % in the paragraph and in our recommendations. 69. We further recommended that labels and advertisements for milk bread should be required to bear a declaration in prescribed form “‘contains whole milk solids” or “contains milk solids not fat’’, as the case might be, and that, where milk bread was sold unwrapped, a notice should be conspicuously displayed at the shop to the same effect. Statements in labels or advertisements that milk bread was rich in any of the nutrients contained in milk, and words or pictorial devices suggesting that milk bread containing skim milk solids had been made with or contained constituents of whole milk should be prohibited. Speciality Breads A. Fruit and Malt Breads, etc. 70. These breads derive their distinct characteristics from the ingredients after which they are named, but, because of differences in local preference, the amount of the ingredient added varies widely in different parts of the country. This means that one designation is applied to a range of products that differ markedly in composition. 71. Malt bread is made by mixing into the dry ingredients ground malt or malt extract and the loaf which results is darker in colour but sweeter than ordinary bread and of a sticky texture. The amount of malt added varies from as little as 6% to as much as 13 % of the dry ingredients. In fruit breads similar variations in the quantity of the particular fruit occur. Any standard would have to allow for these local variations and would therefore have to be below the lowest level of addition in current practice; it is very doubtful if it would serve a useful