NEW ZEALAND FLOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24773, 25 November 1941, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND FLOUR

QUESTION OF QUALITY ALLEGATIONS REFUTED WHEAT INSTITUTE REPORT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 24. The Minister of Industries and Commerce,, Mr D. G. Sullivan, to-day stated that his attention had been called to a recent Press Association message from Nelson in which certain allegations were made as to the poor quality of New Zealand flour. These statements were so alarming in their nature, Mr Sullivan said, that he felt compelled to issue a statement on the matter, and Dr Hilgendorf, Director of the Wheat Research Institute at Christchurch who was immediately communicatee! with, had made the following report:— "A statement made by the judges at the Nelson A. and P. Show caused the greatest surprise to the Wheat Research Institute. The institute makes thousands of tests of New Zealand flour every year and has found the quality has progressively improved, especially during the past three years, the period during which there has been no importation of Canadian flour or wheat. The institute has been shown a duplicate of one of the winning exhibits and there is no question that it is a very high-class loaf, with evidence of high quality flour and excellent workmanship. "The statement of the judges probably intended to refer to a matter in which the public have little interest, namely, the show quality of a loaf This is indicated by their own words: 'The exhibit could only be described as very poor from a show point of view.' But show points are not primarily concerned with several factors that are of interest to the consumer. Show points are concerned with bulk, fineness qf crumb structure, colour of crust, bloom of crust, etc., which are all important as indications of good workmanship on the part of the operative, but have only an indirect bearing upon flavour and palatability, and none at all on the nutritive value.

" It is quite true th,at Canadian flour makes a bulkier, whiter loaf than New Zealand flour does, but it is also true that New Zealand flour is quite as palatable as Canadian, and it is definitely superior in nutritive value, especially in regard to minerals and vitamins. "The statement by a Nelson baker that the quality of New Zealand flour has been adversely affected by header harvesting is quite contrary to the results given by exact experiments. vßefore the Wheat Research Institute gave its support to the use of headers it made scores of baking trials of wheat headed and stook-threshed from the same fields, and found there was* no difference between the quality of the loaves baked from wheat harvested by the two methods."

BAKERS AND MILLERS

DISAGREEMENT WITH CRITICISM

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 24. Representatives of the bakers and flourmillers to-day disagreed in the strongest terms with the statement of two judges of the bread competition at the Nelson Show that the quality of New Zealand bread was inferior because the flour bakers were at present getting was bad. The quality of New Zealand flour, they said, was very high, and had never been higher than in the last two years. "This attack .on the quality of New' Zealand flour was most surprising because probably never before has it been agreed by so many of those in the trade that the flour quality is so even and generally satisfactory as it is at present," said Mr R. J. Lyon, chairman of the New Zealand Flourmillers' Society. "It has to be remembered that millers are subject to severe tests of quality every month, and no slackness is tolerated by the Wheat Controller. Actual experience shows that the tests this year are fully equal to any previous year, and the best judges of whether the flour and the bread quality is satisfactory are the public, who are quick to perceive any lowering in the usual standard. But all our information shows that there is almost an entire absence of complaints." "The remarks of the judges as reported are, in my opinion, definitely incorrect," said Mr F. H. Hawker, chairman of the Executive Committee of the New Zealand Master Bakers and Pastrycooks' Association, and managing director of Messrs Stacey and Hawker. Ltd. "I simply cannot understand the remarks reported as having been made by the judges, and I am fully satisfied that an unfortunate mistake has occurred somewhere. I am satisfied that the loaves sent to the show by my own firm were of excellent standard."