BREAD STANDARDS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 302, 6 April 1945, Page 5

BREAD STANDARDS

Sir-I was glad to read Dr. Muriel Bell’s clear explanation of the bread standards published in a recent Listener. The regulations in themselves seem excellent, but in practice they are still working out very poorly for the housewife, because the average shopkeeper and baker’s roundsman has no idea of the weight or composition of the various loaves he handles. I studied the regulations a year ago, and put in a standing order for the 2lb. wholemeal loaf. It took me four weeks of strenuous argument to have the first one delivered, and over the past year I have had’ it delivered only about half as often as I have ordered it. We frequently have a new roundsman, and each one in turn denies the existence of such a loaf; the battle begins afresh with every change, and the 6d I leave in a box at the gate for my ordered 2lb. wholemeal is often taken in exchange for a Vienna loaf weighing only 144lbs. Few roundsmen or shopkeepers seem to know which loaf is "brown," i.e,, 60 per cent. wholemeal, and which 90 per cent. and 100 per cent. wholemeal. The firm that serves me, one of the largest in Auckland, makes only one type of full-weight 2lb. wholemeal loaf, and this is definitely inferior in quality to every other type of loaf it bakes. It is often so badly shaped and

cooked that it cannot be used for. cut lunches. Besides these troubles there is a chronic and widespread shortage of wholemeal bread and rolls,» compared with white, and for this I have never heard any reasonable explanation. There are still many practical difficulties to be overcome before the housewife can buy satisfactory wholemeal bread in Auckland as easily and as cheaply and as regularly as she can buy white bread.

WHOLEMEAL

(Auckland).