THE ETHICS OF FOOD 283 



The reasons for bleaching are stated by its advocates to be 

 twofold — a whiter flour is obtained and the flour conditions 

 more quickly. On the other side it is claimed that bleaching is 

 directly injurious to the public health, the effect on conditioning 

 is denied and the sale of bread artificially whitened is regarded 

 as fraudulent. 



Bleaching is effected by the miller almost entirely by electri- 

 cal methods. By passing an electric spark discharge through 

 air, a small proportion of the nitrogen and oxygen are caused to 

 combine and the bleaching agent nitrogen peroxide is produced, 

 together with a minute quantity of ozone. The flour is briskly 

 agitated with the electrified air during only a very few seconds ; 

 indeed, special care has to be taken to prevent the flour from 

 being over-bleached and spoilt by excessive exposure to the 

 bleaching agent. 



The nature of the demand for a white loaf in this country 

 has been already considered in the earlier article. As Dr. 

 Hamill is at pains to show, English millers are forced to buy 

 their wheat from all over the world. Some of the wheats yield 

 flour of excellent baking qualities but which is classed as inferior 

 in consequence of its being yellow in colour ; bleaching is 

 considered specially useful in the case of the flour from such 

 wheats. Certain Indian varieties of wheat, Hard Plate, Walla 

 Walla, Durum and some Russian varieties come in this category 

 — obviously a very wide selection. Should the miller make flour 

 from these wheats without bleaching them, he is forced to 

 accept a lower price on account of the inferior colour of the 

 flours though the bread-making qualities and nutritive value are 

 in every way equal to those of the more favoured whiter flours. 



The report deals very fully with the considerations influencing 

 the amount and degree of bleaching and with the effect of 

 bleaching on the appearance and other properties of flour ; the 

 conclusions finally arrived at are as follows : 



(1) That when properly carried out bleaching has no appre- 

 ciable effect on the baking qualities of flour ; 



(2) That bleaching cannot counteract defects in flour due to 

 unsoundness in the wheat from which it was milled ; 



(3) That the improvement of flour by bleaching represents a 

 pecuniary gain to the miller ; 



(4) That so long as buyers of flour attach importance to 

 whiteness, they are liable when purchasing bleached flour to be 



