BEEF FOR ENGLAND

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4428, 21 May 1941, Page 7

BEEF FOR ENGLAND

MAY GO IN CONCENTRATED FORM. All the beef needed to feed England in an emergency could be flown from Australia by a few flying-boats in a just-discovered concentrated form. Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Wat-kins-Pitchford, Government bacteriologist, has developed a process of extracting all the nutritive and stimulative properties in beef and other foods, according to the London Times of recent date. The development enables the transport of the food content of 51,600 carcases of beef in ships normally having refrigerating space for only 6000 carcases. It is claimed that it would now be practicable -to transport to Britain all the principals contained in beef by air. A flying-boat with a capacity of three tons and a half could convey all the nutriment present in 121 carcases of an average dressed weight of 560 lbs. Twelve flying-boats daily could transport in a year all the nutriment of 500,000 carcases. This concentrated process is introduceable to a wide range of foods without appreciably affecting flavour, odour, or appearance. These foods include Army rations, biscuits, invalid foods, cocoa, chocolate, coffee, malt, wine, stout, beef tea, and cereals. The nutritional value amounts to 60 lbs in a dressed carcase of 560 lbs. It occupies one-twentieth of the space, and amounts to less than oneninth of the Weight of beef shipped in the form of dressed quarters. The concentrated process has an additional value because the food is pre-digested. Delays in transit would not affect the concentrate, which is easily storable. It is suggested that it will be valuable for building up reserves for distribution at the end of the war to the ill-nourished populations under German domination.