§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Minister of Food if he will name the medical adviser mentioned in the secret instruction to Controlled Millers, C.M.C. 646, dated 19th September, 1946, as advising the reduction of extraction in national flour from the current 90 per cent. to 85 per cent.; why, in the same instruction, millers are informed that they must maintain the quota of chalk 14 ounces to 280 pounds in view of the explanation offered by his Department that the quota had been doubled to meet the increased extraction of 90 per cent.; and whether he will decrease this quota of chalk pari passu with the decrease in the rate of extraction.
§ Mr. StracheyThe medical advisers mentioned in C.M.C. 646, dated 19th September, 1946, are the members of the Interdepartmental Standing Committee on Medical and Nutritional Problems. The composition of this Committee was given by the Minister of Health in a reply to a Parliamentary Question on 4th July of this year. The original recommendation was that 14 ozs. of Creta Præparata should be added to each sack of 280 lbs. of 85 per cent. extraction flour, but in practice only 7 ozs. was added. When the extraction rate was raised to 90 per cent. the addition of Creta Præparata was raised to 14 ozs. per 280 lbs. on the grounds of the increased amount of phytic acid in the flour. Now the extraction rate is being lowered to 85 per cent. it is considered inadvisable to lower the rate of addition of Creta Præparata below the original recommendation, as alternative sources of calcium in the diet are short at present, but this course is subject to any further recommendation from the medical advisers.