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CONSUMPTION OF FOOD PRODUCTS IN THE 

 UNITED KINGDOM. 



A noteworthy feature in connection with the food supplies 

 of the United Kingdom during the present generation has 

 been the increased consumption of animal food which has 

 accompanied the development of the trade in frozen and 

 chilled meat. Improvements in the processes of preserving 

 and transporting perishable produce have brought within the 

 reach of the industrial population large consignments of 

 fresh beef and mutton from the Antipodes and from trans- 

 atlantic countries, with the result that the proportion of meat 

 in the food of the people has been sensibly increased. It might 

 be supposed that this change would be followed by a decreased 

 consumption of other things, but the absence of satisfactory 

 data of the production of some varieties of food, e.g.y butter 

 and cheese, renders it difticult to make any very precise 

 deductions as to the full extent of the modifications which 

 may have taken place in the composition of the dietary of the 

 population. Statistics are, however, available of the produc- 

 tion and importation of some of the principal articles of food, 

 and from these it is possible to estimate the average quan- 

 tities of these products entering into consumption annually 

 in this country. It is here proposed to refer to the results 

 brought out by estimates of this kind, which may throw 

 some light on the changes that have occurred in the relative 

 consumption of meat and other food-stuffs in the United 

 Kingdom in the past twenty years. 



Statements showing the estimated supply of meat avail- 

 able for food during that interval will be found in the 

 Report on the Agricultural Returns for 1896, and in the 

 Final Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture. 

 In the former the results are shown in yearly averages 



