TEOPICAL FOOD MATERIALS 49 



bread to the consumer, while evidence is not wanting that these 

 innovations are distinctly harmful, and may even be dangerous. 



It may be concluded, therefore, that while a " standard " flour, 

 containing 80 per cent, of the whole grain, and including the germ 

 and semolina, permits of millers making use of inferior grades of 

 wheat for its production a deception that is already practised, 

 and capable of considerable extension in the manufacture of 

 ordinary white flour at least, it gives no incentive to the gross 

 adulteration of flour with harmful chemical substances, which, 

 from the Government report above referred to, would appear to 

 be only too common. 



It is quite evident that in the evolution of the modern processes 

 of milling, so far as the nutritive value of flour is concerned, a 

 false standard has been set up viz., one based on the colour, 

 lightness, and texture of the products. In order to approach as 

 nearly as possible to this standard, and at the same time produce 

 a flour that will give the largest yield of the most attractive bread 

 from a given quality of wheat, millers have not scrupled to reduce 

 materially the important nutritive constituents of the flour, and 

 to enhance its commercial value by methods that are distinctly 

 deceptive, and in their effects not without danger to the public. 

 If the only true criterion of a high-class flour viz., the real 

 nutritive value of the bread obtained therefrom were adjudged 

 the standard by which flours would be graded, there is very little 

 doubt that millers would soon find it was to their own interests 

 to place flour on the market that would meet all requirements, 

 and all danger from inferior wheats and from adulteration with 

 noxious compounds would be at an end. 



From the results of feeding experiments carried out on a large 

 scale in India with wholemeal obtained by grinding a good-class 

 wheat, it has already been shown that 80 per cent, of the protein 

 will be absorbed. This wholemeal has not been deprived of any 

 of its nutritive material, and probably contains a slightly larger 

 amount of the bran and outer layers than would be the case in 

 " standard " bread. An equally high percentage of protein 

 absorption should be possible from " standard " flour milled 

 from a good class of wheat. 



In another connection it will be necessary to consider the effects 

 on the system of the retention of as much of the wheat grain as 

 possible in flour ; at present the relative degrees of absorption 

 shown by different grades of flour require examination. 





