Poor Flour Cause of Poor Bread

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 41, 18 February 1937, Page 8

Poor Flour Cause of Poor Bread

BAKER BLAMES GOVERNMENT CONTROL. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Night. Strong exception to the criticism made at a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board on Tuesday regarding the quality of bread supplied to the board’s institutions, was taken to-night by Mr S. J. Thomas, of the Crown Bakery Company, which holds the contract for the supply of bread. The remarks made ou the subject by Mr. W. G. Mulholland were described by Mr Thomas as an outburst not backed up by facts. “When statements are made that the bread supply is unsatisfactory," Mr Thomas said, "attention must be paid to the question of flour supply. In a sense, the flour supplied by the Government is not fit for human consumption. The Minister of Industries and Commerce, Hon. D. G. Bullivan, had experiments made in conjunction with the poultry industry, to ascertain whether or not sprouted wheat was suitable for the feeding of poultry. The Government could not be sure that sprouted wheat was good enough to feed to poultry but it has used and is still using sprouted wheat in the milling of flour to be used by bakers for human consumption." "Only certain ingredients can be used in the baking of bread, tho flour being the most important. It is absolute piffle to say the lowest grado of bread is being supplied to the Hospital Board. Low grade bread can be manufactured only from low grade flour and as flour in New Zealand to-day is standardised, there cannot be any great variation in the standard of bread baked throughout the Dominion. 'There is no doubt the quality of bread of all bakers has suffered as tho result of the Government control of flour and wheat iu New Zealand. However, we have never had any complaints regarding the quality of our bread and we have never heard of cur bread being condemned. Tho reported remarks of Mr Mulholland, therefore, came as a complete surprise."