POOR QUALITY BREAD

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 February 1937, Page 14

POOR QUALITY BREAD

GOVT. POLICY BLAMED. [FEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] z ’ AUCKLAND, February 17. Strong exception to the criticism made at a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board on Tuesday about the quality of the bread supplied to the Board’s institutions was taken to-night by Mr, S. J. Thomas, of the Crown Bakery Company,, which holds the contract for the supply of bread. The remarks made on the subject by Mr. W. G. Mulholland were described by Mr. Thomas as an outburst not backed up by facts. “When statements are made that the bread supply is unsatisfactory,” Mr. Thomas said, “attention must be paid to the flour supply, in the sense that the flour supplied by the Government is not fit for human consumption. The Minister for Industries and Commerce (Hon. D. G. Sullivan) had experiments made in conjunction with the poultry industry to ascertain whether or not sprouted wheat was suitable for the feeding of poultry. The Government could not be sure that sprouted wheat was good enough to feed poultry, but it has used, and is still using, sprouted wheat in the milling of flour to be used by bakers for human consumption. “Only certain ingredients can be used in the baking of bread, flour being the most important,” continued Mr. Thomas. “It is absolute piffle to say that the lowest grade of bread is being supplied to the Hospital Board. Low-grade bread can be manufactured only from low-grade flour, and as flour in New Zealand to-day is standardised, there cannot be any great variation in the standard of bread baked throughout the Dominion.” “There is no doubt that the quality of bread of all bakers has suffered as a result of the Government control of flour and wheat in New Zealand. However, we have never had any complaints about the quality of our bread, and we have never beard of our bread being condemned. The reported remarks of Mr. Mulholland therefore came as a complete surprise.’’ he added.