asked the Minister for Supplies whether he is aware that large quantities of bread are being wasted as a result of bakers' bread becoming uneatably stale within 36 hours of being baked, and whether in order to avoid this waste he will permit manufacture of 85 per cent. flour and make an order reducing proportionately the monthly allocations of flour to bakers, thus ensuring 100 per cent. consumption of all bread baked.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Consumption of Bread.
I do not agree with the statement that bakers' bread as at present produced becomes uneatably stale in 36 hours and I am supported in my view by representatives of the bakery trade. Consequently I am not satisfied that wastage of bread can be attributed to the reason given by the Deputy.
One of the principal objects at present is to spread the existing stocks of wheat over the period up to the next harvest without an appreciable restriction on the quantity of bread available for the public. I do not know the grounds for the Deputy's assertion that there would be 100 per cent. consumption of bread baked from 85 per cent. flour; but on the basis of 85 per cent. extraction the amount of flour available from our present stocks of wheat would not, for the period to which I have referred, exceed 78 per cent. of the consumption in the corresponding period in 1940. Such a situation would in my opinion necessitate the introduction of a rationing scheme to secure equitable distribution.
Is the Minister satisfied that he is not being advised in this matter by miller bakers who have available white flour in store and who can therefore avail of the permission that is given to introduce 20 per cent. of their white flour into bread mixtures——
No.
Oh, yes, they can, under an order made by the Minister, and thereby avoid the staling of bread which bakers who have to use exclusively 95 per cent. flour universally experience. Is it not true, further, that according to the Minister's own statement we have wheat in Portugal and on the way to Ireland which may be reasonably expected to arrive soon? Is it not true, further, that while at present large quantities of stale bread are being given to animals for feeding, if we had an 85 per cent. flour it would release 15 per cent. milling offals for animal feeding and would ensure that the edible wheat was consumed by the citizen population to 100 per cent. of the bread produced, particularly if it were rationed to the public as it could easily be?
Bread made from an 85 per cent. extraction will go stale just as quickly as bread made from a 95 per cent. extraction.
That is what the bakermillers say.
Tests carried out by the Department, and the opinion of persons competent to express an opinion, show that there is no appreciable difference in the length of time it takes bread to stale once the extraction of wheat is increased beyond 80 per cent.
Nonsense.
The Deputy may think it is nonsense.
I have been baking bread for the last 20 years with my own hands.
Experts in the country whom we have consulted have expressed that opinion, and I am prepared to accept their opinion rather than that of Deputy Dillon. In any event, our arrangements to ensure that there will be a sufficiency of flour in the country until the harvest, are based on the present extraction. We are not prepared to jeopardise the proper working of this arrangement.
Is the Minister aware that the experts to whom he refers are bakers who control mills?
They are not necessarily bakers.
Is the Minister aware that the experts he consults are bakers who control mills, that they are, therefore, in a position to bake bread far different from that produced by bakers who do not control mills? Has the Minister consulted any independent baker in rural Ireland? I have been baking bread for 20 years, and I know that 95 per cent. batch bread will go stale in 36 hours, and 85 per cent. bread will not. Any rural baker will tell the Minister the same.
Any chemist——
Chemist, my foot! What does a chemist know about baking?