BAKERS AND PASTRYCOOKS

Evening Star, Issue 19196, 12 March 1926, Page 2

BAKERS AND PASTRYCOOKS

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE THE WRAPPING OF BREAD AND THE STANDARD LOAF At the afternodn session all the time was taken up in a discussion on bread wrapping, first Dr J. H. Crawshaw, inspector of health, delivered a most interesting treatise on the and Mr V. M. Dickinson followed with a paper on tho standardisation of tho size and shape of the loaf during the last few years in Europe and America as an offset to tho cost of wrapping. Both addresses wore listened to with deep interest, and hearty votes of thanks were accorded the speakers. In opening his subject, Dr Crawshaw stated that he was going to touch on a vital question from a public health point of view. Broad was ono oi, the few articles which came to the table to be eaten without anything further being done. Bread, alter baking, was handled many times in its transit to tho consumer. When the bread lei t the oven it was probably quite sterile, as the boat of tho oven had killed all bacilli. It was taken irom the bakehouse to the cart for distribution, and was handled in transit by various persons. This meant that tho bread was at once contaminated. Even il it was not touched when it became exposed to tho air it became contaminated by bacilli, and moulds from the atmosphere. All hands were surgically unclean, so broad in its handling was sure to become infected when touched by hand. Somo little time ago a loaf was examined by the speaker which had been bought from a cart. Numerous bacilli were isolated from the loaf. Considering tho matter in this way,_ it was evident to everyone that something would have to be done, no matter what tho cost. That something was by bread wrapping. The speaker outlined seven conditions which were necessary, and which ho was sure the department would agreo to. Ho also touched on tho financial side of tho problem, and the standardisation in tho size of the loaf. Experimental work had shown that wrapped broad lost far less than half of its moisture in seven days, as compared with unwrapped bread. The speaker also outlined many reasons why it was advantageous to wrap bread both from tho customers’ and bakers’ viewpoint. The introduction of wrapped bread would enable bakers to'bake on tho day before sale, and thus night baking would be dispensed with, wTdle a housewife could tako_ m an ample supply at holiday time without fear of the bread going; stale. Wrapped bread would keep, if necessary, for a week, and would still be moist and palatable. In the course of his address Mr Dickinson said that in America practically all baking was done by machinery, and the work was brought down to a lino art. in America they had been very fortunate of recent-years with regard to labor troubles and foolproof machinery had been adopted. If employees walked out without giving notice, the .employers with the Employers’ Association, which despatched a car load of striae breakers. The men who worked 1 in the modern bakery were nothing more than laborers, whose only work was tho pushing of troughs and racks about the buildings, together with the cleaning up of bakehouse and utensils. ' Ono could understand how little a modern baker had to worry about skilled labor. All bakers employed' skilled chemists, who set the formula!, times, and temperatures for the unskilled men to carry out, gud they worked to charts which were being checked up ail the time. When' the New Zealand bakers considered that for a moment they would say: “We connot do likewise in this country. To that lie would say: “Wo can,” by making one shape loaf, and the machinery manufacturers had seen the trend of events by catering for both the small and largo breadmaker. Me had visited a Dunedin bakery where no fewer than nine men were working from shortly’after midnight till after 1 p.m. to produce about 2,800 loaves of a multitude of sizes. Against that he had visited a bakery abroad which was turning out no less than bU,OUU Ulb loaves, and the total number ot employees actually in the bakehouse was nine, which worked out at an output of 1,000 per eight hours per man To attain this was impossible without standardisation. Every bakery manager he had sjokon to had iiuoxmed him that it was the standardised loai that had made machine bakery possible and wrapping universal. Mi Dickinson also dealt with matters of interest in England and America. The speaker said he had purposely avoided speaking on the largo automatic! plant, as New Zealand was too small. The small baker would always be in existence, and no ono would like to see tho working master baker deprived of his livelihood. This would happen if large bakery concerns were started in every city. Tho speaker appealed to all as business men to work for a standardised loaf oi the best possible quality. By so doing tho public and the Health Department would oeitainly assist in making tho hygienic handling of bread possible. Alter the information gained in his Havels tho speaker was of the opinion that the cost of wrapping would be negligible. Should conference decide xn favor or the wrapped loaf of standard shape and sko, it should certainly be of the open pan type, allowing for the maximum slackness of the dough Tins would moan that bakers would bo able to sell more water. All bread would bo moulded by machinery, _ which would mean an enormous saving ot label. Bakers would be able to scale considciably lighter, and would never have to fear the. evaporation which took place in tho unwrapped loaf. The maximum loss of weight in the 21b loaf wrapped was only *oz in ninety Hours. Before concluding, tho speaker stated that a leading firm in London had started on a wrapped loaf of standard size and weight under four years ago, and today their sales amounted to something like 150,000 21b loaves per day, and they could sell to the storekeeper below the prices charged before they started wrapping. EVENING SESSION. At tho evening session proceedings opened with a paper delivered by Mi J. A Cannon, president ot the Auckland Master Bakers’ Association, on apprentices and their training. Mr Connon said he had been delegated from the last conference at Invercargill to go into the apprentice subject. ine speaker had drawn up no tangible scheme for reasons which were many and complicated. The speaker had tried in Auckland to intoiest evciybody connected with the trade legaiding the desirability of technical training, hut without much result, i he operatives’ union did not hotbex about the matter from the viewpoint that the more apprentices taken on the moie competition there would ho foi situations, By reason of keeping the supply of apprentices on tho short side wages would automatically be forced up. The speaker had been in communication with the Australian States, and from what could be gathered from correspondence, the technical training and syllabus in vogue there was verv hallhearted and would not merit an immediate expenditure of money. A recent

list of 100 boys who had applied to leam trades was represented by a fair number of applicants for each trade with the exception of the baking trade. The cause, in the mind of the speaker, why lads had no desire of learning the trade was in some measure due to parents assisting their boys to enter professions instead of skilled trades. However, in time the professions would become full, and lads would turn to the skilled trades. A vote of thanks was passed lor the address. Mr H. P. Burton, of Auckland, delivered the final lecture of the couicrference, when ho took as his subject 1 Facts and Figures.’ The address dealt with a system of reports each week in connection with the business of broad-baking. He also covered the system'of book-keeping, which would bo best applicable to the trade. The paper, which was highly interesting from a master’s point of view, was accorded most hearty applause. general. During the week a Special Committee deliberated on a number of points. The committee recommended to last evening’s meeting of conference: —(1) “That this conference confirms the recommendation of the deputation which waited on the Department of Health towards the end of last year that the weights of brown and wholemeal bread shall bo a minimum of 121 b.” (2) “Having reference to hours of labor as provided for in the present award, the conference recommends that no action betaken.” (3) “ That conference confirms the recommendation originally made to the Health Department that fancy bread shall be a loaf the shape of which is different from the standard loaf, so that no one when buying will bo under the impression that he or she is buying a standard loaf.” All the recommendations were adopted.

Mr A. Undd (Auckland) was elected a life member of the association, and the conference passed a motion of sympathy with him in his illness. The conference closed with hearty yotos of thanks to the Dunedin branch, the secretary, the Press, and those responsible for the entertainments.