WRAPPED BREAD

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30367, 17 February 1964, Page 12

WRAPPED BREAD

Committee In Favour (N.Z, Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 16. All bread should be wrapped before sale to the consumer, says the report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Wheat, Flour, and Bread Industries. The report says the demand for wrapped and sliced bread, which in some bakeries in the main centres is nbw 40 per cent of output, requires a further substantial increase in building and plant Profit margins under price control have been insufficient to provide adequately for replacement of plant and expansion, and many bakeries faced with such costs have preferred to sell out Between 1940 and 1962 the number of bakeries fell from 730 to 239. The committee says the Food Hygiene Regulations, 1962, enable the Minister of Health to order the wrapping of bread before it leaves the bakehouse. Consumer Service thought that because many small bakeries could not afford the high cost of bread-wrapping machines, it would be impracticable to implement the regulation. Nevertheless, the committee thinks all bread should be wrapped. Consumer Service suggested that for rural reliveries bakers should handwrap bread in clean, unused paper and seal the ends with adhesive tape, saving the cost of automatic machinery. The committee thinks this could be adopted.