HC Deb 25 June 1951 vol 489 cc973-5
6. Dr. Stross

asked the Minister of Food to what extent flour is still treated with agene; and when he estimates this type of flour treatment will have entirely ceased.

Mr. Webb

The proportion of flour used for human consumption at present treated with agene is estimated at about 90 per cent. As has already been announced, agreement has been reached with the milling industry to stop the use of agene and consideration is now being given to the choice of an alternative improver; but I cannot yet say when the treatment of flour with agene will cease.

Dr. Stross

Does not my right hon. Friend realise that his answer cannot be satisfactory to those of us who are interested in this subject and who suspect that agene is a toxic agent? Is he aware further that such an authority as Lord Mellanby recently stated that in his view it might be that peptic ulceration and acute appendicitis result from the use of agene'? Cannot my right hon. Friend hurry up the process?

Mr. Webb

We are trying to hurry it up, but there is a conflict of evidence about it. There is no real evidence to support the rather alarming suggestions made by my hon. Friend. We have agreed to make certain changes in the production of flour and in the end to eliminate the use of agene. I hope that my hon. Friend will exercise some patience in allowing us adequate time in order to get this matter through the industrial machine.

Mr. Douglas Marshall

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the first answer he gave was exactly the same as the answer he gave to me in April, 1950, with the exception that he then said "in the immediate future." More than a year has elapsed and he has taken no action.

Mr. Webb

It is not surprising that my answer is not dissimilar from the one I gave in April, 1950. I said then that it was a long process. [An HON. MEMBER: "Why?"] For all sorts of reasons into which I cannot go now. We are committed to the change, but the task of effecting it is complicated and takes a long time; but we are proceeding with all due speed.

Sir Herbert Williams

Is it not a fact that the millers would not have put this substance into the flour unless the right hon. Gentleman's Department had forced them to do so?

Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd

Does not the fact that the Minister has now decided to terminate the use of agene as a chemical ingredient, in spite of the conflict of evidence, indicate that he has come to the conclusion that there is something radically wrong with its use? In view of that, ought he not to speed up the process?

Mr. Webb

I am doing all I can to speed up the process. It is not as easy as it looked when I started and entered into commitments about it. There are really serious difficulties for the people who are engaged in the milling of flour, all of which I have to take into account. They themselves agreed to this new arrangement, and they will, I am convinced, make the necessary change at the earliest practicable moment.

Mr. Somerville Hastings

Is any direct research carried out in my right hon. Friend's Department into the toxicity or otherwise of such substances as agene?

Mr. Webb

I should like notice of that question.

12. Sir Waldron Smithers

asked the Minister of Food if he will give the analysis of flour for bread used today, showing, in particular, how much potato flour is included.

Mr. Webb

The flour supplied by millers for bread-making is composed of home-milled wheaten flour with an 81 per cent. extraction rate and imported wheaten flour with a 72 per cent. extraction rate. Calcium carbonate, at the rate of 14 oz. per 280 lb. of flour, is also added. Bakers may add potato flour in baking bread, but because of its relatively high price hardly any is being used at present.

Sir W. Smithers

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that deterioration in the quality of our bread is entirely due to bulk purchase and State monopoly? Is he also aware that shortages are produced by restricting consumption, and that there are no real shortages in the world today?

Mr. Webb

I cannot accept that supposition, because long before the State bulk-purchased wheat, private enterprise bulk-purchased wheat and flour.