THE QUEST FOR SAFE FOOD

The emergence of large urban communities associated with modern industrialised societies has imposed enormous demands on supplies of essential foodstuffs. It is clearly quite impractical to provide major conurbations with wholly fresh food. Household expenditure on foods in this country exceeds £10,000 million per annum, and we are obliged to import more than half of our essential food supplies. Even minor changes in our climate, geographically or politically, can precipitate crises as far as supplies of fresh foods are concerned, and apart from the necessity to import food, arrangements must now exist for its long distance transportation and prolonged storage with minimum loss of nutritional value. There has also been an increased demand for high quality foods entailing the minimum of preparation and waste at economical prices.