FLOUR QUALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 17, 20 January 1934, Page 6

FLOUR QUALITY.

FOOD PROPERTIES.

NEW ZEALAND AND CANADIAN.

REPLY to master bakers.

A refutation of the statement made at a recent meeting of Auckland master bakers, that it was impossible to make a "decent" loaf without mixing a fair quantity of Canadian flour with the New Zealand commodity, is given by a prominent miller, who draws attention to the remarks of Mr. W. W. Mulholland published in the current issue of the ■'Wheatgrower."

"That Canadian wheat and flour are said to be of better quality than that which New Zealand produces has led many people to believe that the consumer of bread does benefit from the use of the former," Mr. Mulholland says, inter alia. "It is not so. In his evidence before the Tariff Commission recently Mr. H. E. West, the chemist of the Wheat Research Institute, and the highest qualified and most experienced cereal chemist in Australasia, said: 'Quality as applied to flour means that a loaf of bread can be made from the flour which is pleasing to the eye, both in regard to external and internal characteristics with the minimum of efi'ort, skill and experience on the part of the baker. .. . . Now, while we consider that overseas flours from a baker's : point of view are higher in quality, we definitely do not concede that such flours are better in nutritional properties than local flours. Actually if one will assume, as our Public Health Department does, that whole meal loaves are more nutritious than white flour bread, then bread made from all New Zealand flour is more nutritious than bread made from overseas flour, especially Canadian. This is so because our flours represent more of the wheat grain, especially the outer layers, which are rich in mineral matter and vitamins, than do Canadian flours. . . . The bakers' grade of Canadian (flour) is poorer in mineral matter, fibre, fat and vitamins than is our straight grade.' Superiority of New Zealand Flour. "This considered opinion definitely establishes the superiority of the New Zealand article from the consumer's standpoint, and it cannot be too widely known that the alleged superior quality of Canadian flour is only from the baker's point of view, and consists mainly in that it requires less skill on his part to make a good loaf, and that he can put more water into it and so obtain more loaves from the same amount of flour, which is of no benefit to the consumers. "As the bulk of the flour made is used by bakers, it follows that a miller making a flour which is of a little better quality, as they regard quality, than his competitors, has an advantage in selling his flour, and naturally his competitors, finding they are losing trade, .set out to get it back, and this has been done mainly by adding more and still more Canadian flour or wheat to the •mill grists. Before this competition broke out the usual practice was where any Canadian wheat or, flour was used by millers to use just a trace, say, 2 per cent, in the grist; but under this insensate competition instances have been mentioned to me where 12 per cent to 15 per cent were being used. The result this year has been to completely nullify the policy of the Wheat Purchase Board for keeping out imported flour." Price Reduction Nullified. Mr. Mulholland adds, further, that the Wheat Purchase Board at the beginning of last year reduced, the .price of flour in the North Island 15/ a ton. at a cost of approximately 2d a bushel to wheat growers, in order to keep as much as possible of the market for New Zealand wheat. It was thus hoped that ■the increased consumption of local wheat would reduce the amount that had to be exported at a loss. That expectation had been entirely nullified by the ridiculous lengths to which competition had gone by the use of imported wheat and flour by mills. That competition was spreading from, the' North Island to the. South Island. The Government had some responsibility in that regard, because the Department of Health would not permit the use of science to improve the quality of New Zealand flour (from the point of view of the baker) to such an extent that imported flour would offer much less attraction foT him.