The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-03-02
State Food Expert Champions
Plan to Have All Bread
Wrapped.
ENDORSED IN THIS CITY
FEDERATED WoMEN'S CLUBS OF
RICHMOND APPROVE OF THE
MOVEMENT, BUT THE BAKERS
ARE NOT ENTHuSED.

The movement for wrapping bread
with oiled paper, which has been" en-
dorsed by the Federated Women's
clubs OF this city, is popular one with
all, excepting the bakers, who are OBJ
jecting to the additional cost. Fl. E.
Barnard, the state food and drug COM
missioner, has championed the cause
of wrapped bread and has gathered
many statistics which tend to prove
against the reform, while the sanitary
conditions are SO improved that it
makes wrapped bread almost impera-
tive
An Indianapolis account of the move
ment is as follows:
Education Campaign.
In the monthly meeting of H. E.
Barnard, state food and drug commits
sioner, with his four field inspectors
It was decided that a campaign of ed
ucation should be launched among the
housewives of the state and among the
bakers looking to the wrapping in
suitable paper of all bread offered for
sale. The question has been up for
consideration number of times, and
has been taken up informally with
bakers all over the state.
The projected campaign which the
inspectors were instructed to begin at
once is result of scientific inquiry
into the relative merits, as to clean
Illness, OF wrapped and unwrapped
bread. with the finding leaning heavily
in favor of the protected food stuff.
According to Bert Cohn, who has spent
two months in making special study
of the manner of delivering bread in
Indianapolis and vicinity, bread, the
most common of the foodstuffs, is
handled with less regard for cleanli-
ness than any other food carried from
place to place for sales purposes. Mr..
Barnard declared that the peculiar
sticky surface of a loaf of bread makes
it especially liable to catch dirt and
dust. and, therefore, one of the most
destructive carriers OF disease.
An Economic Value.
.Some of the bakers" said Mr.. Bar
nard, "have learned the economic val
ne OF wrapped bread, and have gone
ahead of the state department and now
wrap all their output. It is claimed,
and the claim is substantiated, that
wrapped bread will remain fresh for
from three to four days, while unwrap-
ped bread is so dry that at the end of
twenty-four hours after delivery, it
can not be sold, except as stale bread,
for which there is only a restricted de-
mand. Bakers who wrap their bread
report a surprisingly low percentage
or returned stock. Then again, these
bakers place their trademark on the
wrapper, and they report to me that
they consider the advertising afforded
by the mark, and by the fact that their
bread is wrapped. far more than re-
pays the cost of wrapping. Wrapped
broad is absolutely clean. however
much 1t is handled, and this fact, the
progressive bakers say, has added to
their sales among the housewives who
are discriminating.
''The cost Of wrapping bread, we have
determined, aside from the item of
labor, is about 50 a thousand loaves.
This would not be a great deal more
than the cost of using the stickers
which are now found on almost every
brand OF bread
The commissioner also discussed
with his inspectors the advisability of
an order requiring that all meat shops
and grocery stores provide some means
of covering meats offered for sale, but
no decision was reached, other than
that each of the inspectors is to draw
up rule covering this point. The
suggested rules will be considered in
the next meeting,