HC Deb 27 March 1950 vol 473 cc20-1
18. Mr. Awbery

asked the Minister of Food if we will now consider reducing the extraction of flour from wheat in order to increase the whiteness of the flour, to produce more cattle provender and thus to save dollars and also release the ships now being used as granaries so that they can perform the task for which they were constructed.

23. Brigadier Rayner

asked the Minister of Food whether he will now revise milling percentages in order that more offals may be made available for pig and poultry food.

27. Mr. De la Bère

asked the Minister of Food whether he will now make provision for a whiter loaf to be made available to the public with special regard to authorising a drop in the extraction rate of wheat, and making more wheat offals available for feedingstuffs for cattle.

33. Mr. Black

asked the Minister of Food whether he is aware of the dissatisfaction of the baking trade with the present quality of flour due to the extraction rate remaining at 85 per cent.; that the public is becoming increasingly tired of the loaf produced from such flour; and whether he will consider reducing the rate of extraction to 80 per cent. to enable more palatable bread to be made and to help provide the extra animal feeding-stuffs needed by farmers, pig clubs and small holders.

Mr. Webb

Of course, I should like everybody to have the sort of bread they prefer; but in this matter of the extraction rate we have to consider whether we can buy the extra wheat, whether it will cost dollars, whether the extra milling offals would be dearer than other imported feedingstuffs, and so on. My Department is watching all these changing factors very closely, and when the balance of advantage lies with lowering the extraction rate we shall do it. No ships are being used for storing grain at present.

Mr. Awbery

Is it not a fact that we are now spending dollars on the purchase of provender for cattle and that we should save the expenditure of those dollars if we reduced the extraction of the wheat from 80 per cent. as it is at present, to about 68 per cent. as it was before the war?

Mr. Webb

All these, of course, are matters to balance in the country's interests, and as I have promised, when the appropriate time comes we shall be able to consider this particular matter.

Brigadier Rayner

Would the right hon. Gentleman consider, with a fresh mind, whether this continued limitation on food for pigs and hens is really necessary; and whether a little thought and a little courage, and particularly a return to a little more power for the private buyer in the world market, would make it unnecessary?

Mr. Webb

I have tried to give thought to it. Courage is another matter. It is a matter to be carefully considered, and I am quite satisfied, after consultation with the Minister of Agriculture, that he, on his side, is quite happy about it.

Mr. Somerville Hastings

Will my right hon. Friend keep carefully in mind the nutritional value of foods, as well as their colour and palatability?

Back to