HC Deb 18 December 1958 vol 597 cc319-20W
Mr. Dodds

asked the Minister of Health, in view of the importance of vitamin E to the health of the nation and of the fact that the bleaching process destroys this vitamin in bread, which should be the principal source of vitamin E, what information he has about the amount of vitamin E in the average diet; and whether he is satisfied that this is adequate.

Mr. Walker-Smith

The place of vitamin E in human nutrition has not yet been established, but I have no reason to suppose that the total intake is insufficient to meet any possible need. Information about the amounts contributed to the diet by various articles of food is necessarily approximate; the most recent suggests that the amount from all types of flour and bread is probably of the order of 4 per cent. of the total vitamin E consumption and, on the same basis, if all flour were untreated by bleaching agents it would not be much more than 10 per cent.