FOREIGN MATTER IN BREAD

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26970, 20 February 1953, Page 3

FOREIGN MATTER IN BREAD

“BAKERS NOT ALWAYS TO BLAME” (New Zealand Press Association) , NELSON. Feb. 19. Bakers were not always to blame for foreign matter found in bread. In Sydney, pieces of glass in bread were traced back to the salt used. In a Wellington case, a piece of bone was found to have come out of a box of lard. These statements were made at the Dominion conference of bakers in Nelson yesterday afternoon, when the New Zealand council of the federation was recommended to ask the Health Department to inspect factories, including flour mills, whose products were made for the baking industry. Mr H. E. Fairey (Wellington) said that bakers were often blamed for impurities for which they were not responsible. Foreign substances were sometimes in flour when it was received by bakers. Wellington bakers had been harassed by Health Department inspectors, said Mr C. Cresswell (Wellington). ' In some of the prosecutions, a more reasonable view might have been taken if a bakehouse was clean and came up to the requirements. There was no need for a prosecution if foreign matter was found in a loaf. The other day a piece of bone was found in some bread—it had come from a box of lard. They had also found rat dirt in a box of lard. He thought a round-table talk with the Health Department would be of great assistance. Mr Fairey said that he had suggested that in one case employees should have been prosecuted. Bakers often had trouble through cigarette butts. If the employees were liable equally with the employers, it might have a good effect.