BRITAIN’S FOOD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27267, 19 December 1949, Page 5

BRITAIN’S FOOD

NO POSSIBILITY OF FAT DEFICIENCY DR SUMMERSKILL’S ASSURANCE NZPA Special Correspondent Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON. Dec. 17. “There is no sign of there being a fat deficiency in this country,” said the Parliamentary Secretary of the Food Ministry, Dr Edith Summerskill, in the House of Commons during a debate on food and nutrition. “We have increased the fat ration and I am glad to say that in the case of cutter, margarine, and cooking and other fats which wete at their lowest level in 1947. when the supply was something like 75 per cent, of pre-war, consumption was 90 per cent, of pre-war for the year 1948-49 and for the whole of 1949 it is 98 per cent, of pre-war. I think the House will agree that this is a very satisfactory measure of progress. I rather hesitate to mention butter and margarine, but the facts are that the country is consuming only half the amount of butter consumed before the war. but twice the amount of margarine.” Dr Summerskill also said: “ It is good to have margarine fortified with vitamins A and D. Nutritionally, the margarine of today is infinitely superior to that rather evil-smelling yellow grease which was used very many years ago.” Dr Summerskill indicated that she was fairly content about Britain’s food with the exception of meat. “ I am certainly not satisfied with the' amount available. It is very important to produce more meat here. We have always had to import much more than the European countries. It is no good members saying that we ought to buy more meat. Lef them tell us where it is and we will send men out in a few days to see if it is there.” Mr R. H. Turton (Conservative, Thirsk and Malton) broke in, “If private traders were allowed to buy instead of the Ministry men, we would get more meat.” Dr. Summerskill: You know the reputation in meat of Sir Henry Turner (Controller of Meat and Livestock). He was a private meat trader and he has not changed now into a man unable to make a good bargin. Mr Turton would not accept that. He blamed the Government bluntly for the lack of meat in Britain today. The mind of the Food Minister. Mr John Strachey, he said, was clouded on one important issue. Britain refused to buy feeding stuff for cattle with dollars when every country in Western Europe used them for that purpose. The Government’s idea was that it was better to buy meat abroad than to buy grain to feed the cattle at home. Every country in Western Europe was now recovering rapidly by producing its own meat, he said.