Welfare Foods (Hansard, 31 October 1955)

§ 34. Dr. Stross
asked the Minister of Health what increase there has been in the demand for welfare foods since he last reviewed the situation; and what is the present position as compared with the demand when the Ministry of Food was responsible for distribution.

§ Miss Hornsby-Smith
I will, with permission, circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a table giving distribution figures up to last June. These shows a rise in the amounts of orange juice and vitamin tablets distributed in the last six months, a slight fall in cod liver oil and a further fall in National dried milk; the figures for all foods are, however, below those for the corresponding period in 1954.

§ Dr. Stross
Is the Parliamentary Secretary prepared, then, to say that, by and large, the only appreciable fall has been in the demand for dried milk and that in areas such as, for example, Stoke-on-Trent, there has even been some rise in the distribution of orange juice?

§ Miss Hornsby-Smith
It is true to say that the pattern is not even all over the country. As my right hon. Friend said in reply to the debate on Wednesday, we are going further into the reasons for the fall in the demand for National dried milk, some of which at any rate is offset by the purchase of proprietary brands.