FRUIT PRESERVATION. (Hansard, 11 September 1941)

Major Lloyd George

Yes, Sir, nearly 6,000 co-operative preserving centres have been set up in the United Kingdom, of which about 5,500 have been set up in rural areas in England and Wales by women's institutes in collaboration with other women's voluntary organisations, and the remainder by Food Control Committees in England, Wales and Scotland, or by the women's institutes of Northern Ireland. Centres have been established wherever it was considered locally that 339W they might be needed to cope with local surpluses of garden fruit or to make full use of the wild fruit crops. In addition, many establishments—especially schools —which have grown fruit in their gardens or gathered wild fruit or been presented with fruit, are taking part in the scheme. For reasons which I gave in my reply of 7th August to my hon. Friend the Member for Moss Side (Mr. Rostron Duckworth) I am unable to state the quantity of preserves which has so far been made. It will be appreciated, however, that not only is the maximum potential output of these centres relatively small compared with that of the factories, but that in many districts, in consequence of the unfavourable weather, there has been no surplus of soft and stone fruit from cottage and other gardens such as might have occurred in a normal season. While, therefore, some centres have found little or no work to do, it must be remembered that had no such scheme been organised in advance, there would have been a serious risk of valuable food being wasted. Moreover, even though in some districts little jam may have been made from cultivated fruits, it is hoped that during the next few weeks considerable quantities of blackberries and other wild fruit will be brought to the centres under arrangements which have been made between my Department, the Board of Education, the Scottish Education Department and the juvenile organisations.

The jam which is made at these centres is inspected by supervisors appointed by the Department of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture prior to its distribution through the normal trade channels in accordance with the provisions of the preserves rationing scheme. A certain amount of jam made early in the season, especially rhubarb, has been rejected by the supervisors for technical defects. The concession whereby schools and other children's institutions are allowed to buy this sub-standard jam, which is generally quite wholesome, for consumption outside the ration, has been greatly appreciated. Of the jam which has passed the inspection test, there is evidence that the greater part has already been sold to local shops at controlled prices for distribution to their registered customers. Arrangements have been made to pass on details of any unsold stocks to the trade associations, which have given their assistance to the scheme by encouraging their 340W members to buy the jam. In the event of the jam not being disposed of in this way, the Co-operative Wholesale Society has kindly offered to take it over. I am glad to say, however, that the initial difficulties in selling jam locally, which some centres reported, now appear largely to have been overcome. A certain amount of fruit has also been canned or preserved in other ways.