§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he is aware that the practice by which millers buy up bakeries when they come upon the market and rent them to bakers who undertake to buy all their flour from that miller, militates against the adoption of the national wheatmeal loaf which local bakers are progressively unwilling or unable to supply on demand; and whether he will inquire into this matter?
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Major Lloyd GeorgeI have no information to support the view that the control of some bakeries by some millers has checked the production and sale of national wheatmeal bread, but if my hon. Friend will be good enough to furnish me with any instances of which he may be aware where local bakers are unwilling to supply national wheatmeal bread on demand I will cause investigations to be made.
§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food at What date, and where, the last advertisement recommending wheatmeal bread appeared; and what has been the expenditure on advertising this bread in the past three months?
Major Lloyd GeorgeThe latest Ministry of Food advertisement to recommend wheatmeal bread appeared during December, 1941, and January, 1942, in a wide range of weekly and monthly periodicals. In reply to the last part of my hon. Friend's Question, I would refer him to my reply to this Question on 11th December, 1941, to which I am not in a position to make any addition at present.
§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food what is the character and date of the latest test by the Ministry of samples of the wheatmeal loaf drawn from different parts of the country; how many samples were taken and with what result as to conformity with the Ministry's specification; and what punitive measures have been taken against the purveyors who were shown to have supplied bread in breach of the Ministry's instructions?
Major Lloyd GeorgeUnder the terms of the Bread (Control and Maximum Prices) Order, 1941, it is an offence to describe as national wheatmeal bread, bread in the making of which ingredients other than national wheatmeal, oil or fat, water, salt, yeast, or improvers in the nature of yeast food, have been used. The policing of this Order is carried out by the Enforcement Officers of the Ministry of Food, but no prosecutions have been necessary since the Order came into force in October last. No other instructions to bakers about the manufacture of national wheatmeal loaves have been given. There are some 27,000 licensed bread bakers in the United Kingdom, and to attempt to standardise their baking methods would1414W be neither desirable nor practicable. One test of some hundreds of samples, directed primarily to ascertaining the quality of the national wheatmeal flour then in distribution, was cameo out in the summer of 1941, but it has not been thought necessary to repeat this survey as more effective checks upon the quality of flour being manufactured have since been devised.