LONDON’S GREAT APPETITE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 12

LONDON’S GREAT APPETITE

FOOD BILL FOR LAST YEAR WONDERFUL ARRAY OF FIGURES. Figures regarding London’s food consumption—and oddly enough they are “ provisional ” figures—are available for 1930. They tell a wonderful story ox the great city’s appetite. London’s weekly bread consumption, tor instance, approaches 25,000,000 halfquartern loaves. If they were all or the “sandwich loaf” variety the daily ration placed end on end would stretch for 600 miles. In addition to home supplies, London imported 1,400,326 tons of wheat and 218,000 tons of flour in 1930. Cheese imports to suit all palates from cheddar to gorgonzola totalled 120,000 tons. . To augment breakfast supplies, nearly 145.000 tons of bacon and hams and 73.000 tons of eggs were imported, and London required over 160,000 tons oi butter in excess of that received from English farms. For lunches and dinners London purchased 660,000 tons of chided and frozen meat from Australia, xvew Zealand, and South America, and dried fruit, chiefly in the form of sultanas, currants, and raisins for puddings and cakes, totalled 111,600 tons. London heartily . supported the Eat more fruit ” campaign last year. It received from overseas 621,000 tons ot green fruit and vegetables. Even then its demands were not entirely satisfied, for canned goods, much of which was fruit, accounted for a further 111,000 tons. The great-grandmothers of the present generation told us how to make tea. “One teaspoonful for each person, they said, “and one for the pot.” In 1930 London imported over 491,000,0001 b of tea, equivalent to 94,320,00,000 cups, with a goodly allowance for the pots. London, too, has a very sweet tooth, and some 874,000 tons of sugar were necessary to satisfy its cravings. With all these purchases, amounting to nearly 5,000,000 tons, London’s housekeeping purse still had a heavy call upon it for innumerable foodstuffs, such as coffee, cocoa, rice, sago, honey, etc. The London market serves nearly one-third of the overseas requirements of the population of England. The statistics quoted are supplied by the Port of London Authority.