§ Mr. DUNCAN MILLARasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether the returns of consumption of bread and flour for the four weeks ending 10th November have now been received; what changes, if any, in consumption are indicated by the figures for this period; and whether the returns necessitate any modification of the figures previously issued for the months of September and October of this year?
§ Mr. CLYNESThe amount of flour used by bakers or sold retail was, according to the returns received by the Ministry, 3½ per cent. more in the four weeks ending 10th November than in the previous four weeks. In the corresponding periods last year the increase was 3 per cent. No substantial modification need be made in the figures already given, but, owing to the probable variation in the amount of flour stocked by purchasers, it is considered that the quantities used by bakers afford the better index of actual consumption in recent months; these quantities show an increase of 3 per cent. when the four weeks ending 13th October are compared with the four weeks ending 15th September (the date of the reduction of price), and a further 2 per cent, in the four weeks ended 10th November. Last year the increase was 1 per cent in each period.
§ Mr. HASLAMasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he will consider the advisability of arranging that whole-wheat meal (95 per cent. extraction) produced in Government-controlled mills, in order to improve its digestible and nutritive qualities, shall be ground so finely as to pass through a No. 16 wire sieve and that the bread made from such meal shall be sold as Government regulation whole-meal bread, so that the public may know that it is of the above extraction and sufficiently finely ground, and that it is sold at the same price as Government regulation white bread; and will he state whether brown bread is being sold to the public made from white flour mixed with offals of a coarse and indigestible nature
1837W
§ Mr. CLYNESThe limited supply of labour and machinery available for flour millers renders the arrangement suggested in the first part of the question impracticable. The maximum price permitted for the retail sale of whole-meal bread is the same as that sanctioned for bread made from Government regulation flour. The sale of brown bread made from white flour mixed with offals is not prohibited, but I am informed that such sale is inconsiderable.