THE ETHICS OF FOOD 287 



be unwise in the present state of knowledge to conclude that 

 the process is absolutely free from risk ! 



There is unfortunately no word in the report as to what 

 happens when bleached flour is made into bread but we have 

 the authority of Snyder in America that the nitrite disappears 

 almost entirely ; indeed Jago has calculated that in order to 

 take the maximum safe dose of nitrite, 10,000 one-pound loaves 

 of bread would have to be eaten, which at the average rate of 

 bread consumption would take an individual fifty-five years ! 



Seeing, moreover, that the yeast organism — which is certainly 

 as delicate a feeder as ourselves and even more susceptible 

 to the influence of foreign substances than is our own digestive 

 apparatus — attacks bleached flour without difficulty and fer- 

 ments it in a perfectly normal manner, it is open to inquire 

 what has become of the great changes to which Dr. Monier- 

 Williams refers. There could be no better proof that they do 

 not exist : if they did the flour would be useless to the baker. 



In our opinion, this part of the report errs in drawing 

 conclusions not in any way in agreement with the evidence so 

 admirably collected and discussed in its earlier pages. Dis- 

 approval of the practice of bleaching may fairly be based either on 

 its being one that is calculated to deceive or on the ground 

 that it is unnecessary — that is to say on ethical grounds ; there 

 is, however, not the slightest evidence that when properly 

 carried out it has any injurious effect whatsoever. 



The report is of the very greatest public value in drawing 

 attention to the question and of even greater value in afford- 

 ing authoritative statements on many details which are so 

 constantly misrepresented in the Press. 



Improvers of Flour 



The second part of the report concerns the addition of 

 the so-called " improvers " to flour. Although bakers have 

 long been in the habit of adding a variety of substances to 

 flour when making bread, including milk, fats, starches, salts, 

 malt extract, yeast foods, etc., it is only quite recently that 

 millers have treated their flour with extraneous substances. 

 No exception has been taken to any of the additions practised 

 by bakers, excepting to that of alum, which has been proved to 

 have a deleterious effect. The addition of alum to bread has 

 long been a thing of the past. 



