FOOD PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1942, Page 4

FOOD PROBLEMS

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATION IN AUSTRALIA OPENING UP NEW SOURCES OF SUPPLY. CUTTING OUT WASTEFUL METHODS. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) SYDNEY, This Day. For the first time in its history, Australia is gravely concerned about something it has always taken for granted—its food. The Commonwealth Food Council, set up to ensure that Australia’s food resources are used to the best advantage, is now holding its first sitting. The Commonwealth has plenty of food while the war lasts, according to the Federal Supply Minister (Mr Beasley)—if its food resources are used rightly. The problem of the right use of those resources, he said, has been exercising the best scientific brains in Australia. “If the war has done nothing else, it has given us a tremendously valuable knowledge of drying, storing and canning our foods,” says the official Food Preservation Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Re-, search. “Fbr instance, before the war, vegetable canning was only in its infancy. Now Australia is canning not only the peas of pre-war days, but potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower beetroot, spinach, silver beet, and canning them well. All this has involved a great deal of research. Vegetables differ in their reaction to canning. The linings of tins must be varied to suit the vegetables to be preserved. The same vegetables grown in different climatic conditions require different treatments. Researches have also been made in the dehydration of foods. Cabbages, onions, carrots, parsnips and potatoes have been preserved and carried in a weight reduced from that of their natural form in a ratio as high as twenty to one. Dessicating methods are now so thorough that 35 sheep boiled down are packed in one gasoline drum — without loss of vitamin or caloric content. Edibility is restored merely by the addition of boiling water. “Australia is also investigating sea food resources previously unexploited. It is estimated that the destruction of fish offal lost the Commonwealth each year 50,000 gallons of fish oil, worth £30,000. Treatment plants to secure this oil are to be erected. The food value of shark oil is now recognised. Gil is even being added to the margarine used by the Commonwealth troops. The resources of the shark industry, with the addition of certain vitamins, are expected to supply all Australia’s needs for stock foods. After eighteen months’ research, a Sydney firm is now undertaking the commercial production of agar dashagar, a jellying substance widely used in food canning. Supplies, made from seaweed, previously came from Japan and the Philippines. Australia-made agar is held to have qualities superior to those of the imported article. SeverM effective substitutes have been found for canned salmon, principally mackerel, kingfish and mullet. Salmon, now unprocurable, was formerly used as a basis for all Australian fish pastes. Experiments have also been made in fortifying and enriching foods. This is done by increasing some valuable nutritive constituent already in the-food. For instance jam sent to prisoners of war in Germany is enriched with the addition of an anti-scorbutic vitamin, which compensates for the lack of green vegetables. The cultivation of the backyard vegetable garden is held to be the key to the problem of Australia’s food supplies. A campaign is now under way to ensure the wider household planting of vegetables, as well as their correct preparation for consumption. In peace the wastage of food values by incorrect preparation methods was regarded as unfortunate. It has now become a matter of national importance. A nationwide publicity drive'has been launched to ensure that no food values are wasted. Housewives are advised: “Eat what you can raw. Steam what you must cook,.and if you must boil some things, save the water for soup stock and use the tops of vegetables. Even carrot and parsnip tops are good for soup. Before you throw away any food, be sure it cannot be used.” Even soldiers in suitable camps are to have their own vegetable gardens.