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24
OUR DAILY BREAD
(Report by the Medical Officer of Health—March.)
Reference.
At the last meeting of the Public Health Committee I was asked for
information regarding agene in bread; and as bread forms such a large
proportion of the national diet, especially among growing children and the
poor, I submit hereunder some information and observations regarding the
changes it has undergone during recent years.
Extraction.
Flour for bread-baking used to be made by grinding wheat between
stones and, as no heat was generated in the grinding process, the valuable
health-giving properties of the wheat were left in the flour—all except the
bran, which was sifted out. But when metallic roller mills came into use for
grinding the flour lost a great deal of the valuable vitamins and minerals it
used to contain.
Before the last war only 70 per cent. of the wheat was made into flour,
and most of the valuable extracted residue was sold either for the feeding of
animals (cattle, swine and poultry) or to the makers of proprietary foods for
the prevention or treatment of vitamin deficiency in human beings.
During the war, in the interests of the nation's health, the extraction
rate was raised compulsorily to 85 per cent. in National Flour, to which chalk
was added.
In 1945 a conference convened by the Ministry of Food to advise on
post-war bread recorded "the very definite view expressed by the medical
and scientific members of the conference that a return to white flour, such
as was commonly in use before the war, would be thoroughly bad for the
nation's health". Nevertheless in 1950 the extraction rate was lowered to
80 per cent. In 1953 Government control ended, so that bread can again
be baked from flour of 70 per cent, extraction, with a corresponding loss
to the public of valuable vitamins and minerals. A National Flour of 80 per
cent. extraction is still available—subsidised and subject to price control;
but the millers contend that the average housewife prefers white bread
when she can get it. Bread made from the new white flour is now neither
subsidised nor subject to price control; but the subsidy on bread made
from National Flour continues.
Addition.
Of the many chemicals used by millers and bakers to improve the
texture and keeping qualities of bread ("improvers"), to replace the valuable
vitamins and minerals removed by extraction ("fortifiers"), to replace the
lost natural fats (" fat extenders "), to increase the bulk of the loaf (" aeration
process ") and to prevent it from going stale too quickly—probably the most
objectionable is nitrogen trichloride ("agene"), which began to be added
to flour in this country soon after the end of the first World War. Unfortunately
no public statement was made at the time of its introduction,
and we knew very little about it until the second World War. The purpose of
agene is to bleach and "improve" the flour, and to make the loaf larger
and more attractive in appearance.