§ 37. Mr. Doddsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in view of the importance of vitamin E in bread to the health of the nation, what experiments have been made for, or on behalf of, his Department to ascertain the effect of steel milling plant on the wheat germ oil; and in what way loss of this oil is made up in the flour for breadmaking.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. J. B. Godber)My right hon. Friend is advised that although vitamin E was discovered more than thirty years 1373 ago, its importance in human nutrition has not yet been established.
No such experiments as the hon. Member mentions have been conducted specifically for, or on behalf of, my Department. It is known however that much of the vitamin E in flour occurs in the germ and that removal of the germ in the milling process reduces the vitamin E content appreciably. But vitamin E is contained in other common items of the diet and on this account my right hon. Friend is advised that the total intake should be sufficient to meet any possible need.