BAKING OF BREAD

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29798, 14 April 1962, Page 8

BAKING OF BREAD

Concentration Noted

During the last 10 years the number of bread-pastry-cooks in New Zealand has fatten by 179 to 248, but their flour purchases have increased nearly 20 per cent.

The Wheat Committee, in making its submissions to the wheat, flour, and bread inquiry in Christchurch yesterday said thait the concentration of bread-baking into large establishments appeared to be a feature of bread manufacturing the world over. In many countries bread consumption was declining, but in New Zealand consumption was at a high level and there was little evidence of decline.

An increasing proportion of flour sold to the baking industry was now used in the production of fancy breads, rolls, and cake, said the committee’s statement. The estimated volume of flour for cake manufacturers is 16,200 tons this year, compared with 11,046 tons in 1958.

Act To Define Powers Sought

The Wheat Committee proposed that its powers be defined by act and not by regulations when it put its submissions before the inquiry into the wheat, flour, and bread industries in Christchurch yesterday. The authority for the system it operated was in the form of "a rather complex set of regulations consolidated in 1944 and amended on 10 occasions since,” said the committee’s statement. They were made under the Board of Trade Act, 1919, now repealed, and superseded by the Industries and Commerce Act. 1956,

Because of pressure of other Parliamentary business the matter of an act had not progressed, although successive Governments had favoured it, said the committee.