Report of the Conference on the post-war loaf : presented by the Minister of Food to Parliament by command of His Majesty, November 1945.

  • Conference on the post-war loaf (1945 : London)
Date:
[1945]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Conference on the post-war loaf : presented by the Minister of Food to Parliament by command of His Majesty, November 1945. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    whose inclusion in bread and flour are prohibited by Bread and Flour Regula- tions, to be found in a mill or bakehouse, unless it can be proved that ‘¢ are not intended for use in contravention of the Act. The Act extends powers of the Minister of Health in making Bread and Flour Regulations, but the making of such regulations was postponed by the outbreak of war. In Scotland only certain sections of the Act apply. These include Section 30 and 31; but instead of Section 3 prohibiting the sale of food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded, Scotland relies on Section 2 of the Food and Drugs (Adulteration) Act, 1928. County Councils and the Town Councils of the large Burghs enforce the Food and Drugs Acts in Scotland. 6. In practice, Local authorities have been able to exercise little specific control over the composition of bread and flour. Their control has been mainly confined to matters of hygiene and the grosser forms of adulteration and misdescription. 7. Apart from the regulations referred to above, home-milled flour came within the scope of the voluntary scheme for standardisation of quality of home produce initiated by the Agricultural Departments under the Agricul- tural Produce (Grading and Marking) Acts, 1928 and 1931. Grade designations and appropriate statutory definitions of quality were prescribed for wheat flour, as well as for malt flour and for bakers’ malt extract made from home-grown grain. The regulations defined the per- missible limits of ash, fibre and moisture content for flour sold under these grade designations and prohibited artificial bleaching of such wheat flour. The ‘‘ National Mark ’’ was applied to flour complying with these grade definitions by millers and packers authorised by a National Mark Committee appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture. Produce packed under the mark was required to be of the quality the mark implied, and was subject to inspection. The authorised packers were under the supervision of the National Mark Committee. The National Mark Schemes have been in abeyance during the war. Wartime Developments 8. Since the outbreak of war the Ministry of Food has regulated the types of flour produced, its composition and the rate of extraction at which it should be milled. (a) Standardisation of Grade and Minimum Extraction 9g. Immediately on the outbreak of war millers were restricted, under the Control] of Mills (Flour and Provender) (No. 1) Order, 1939, to the produc- tion of a straight run flour; the various grades formerly made for special purposes were abolished. Straight run flour was defined in the Flour (Prices) (No. 1) Order as having a minimum rate of extraction of 70 per cent. calculated from the weight of cleaned wheat going into the mill. On October 26th, 1939 the minimum rate of extraction on the same basis was raised by administrative action to 73 per cent. From March 1940, however, the definition of the extraction rate was altered under the Flour (Prices) Order, 1940, which required the rate to be calculated, not from the weight of clean wheat ground, but as a percentage of all the ‘‘ end products ’’ of the milling operation including the screenings, seeds and dust extracted before milling. The flour was for the first time named ‘‘ National Straight Run Flour.’’ On April 21st, 1941, the extraction rate was raised to 75 per cent. by an Amend- ment to the Flour (Prices) Order, 1940.