Food and the City in Europe since 1800 by Peter Lummel Peter J. Atkins

Author:Peter Lummel, Peter J. Atkins [Peter Lummel, Peter J. Atkins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409487487
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Published: 2012-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

Part C

Food Innovations – The Product Perspective

Chapter 11

The Discovery of Vitamins and its Impact on the Food Industry: The Issue of Tinned Sweetened Condensed Skim Milk 1890–1940

Adel P. den Hartog

General

This study is centred on the question of how the food industry has applied new scientific evidence in marketing. The study covers the period 1890–1940, reflecting the age of the discovery of vitamins, which gave a new understanding of the relationship between food and health. Sweetened condensed milk in tins is chosen as a case study to illustrate how industry dealt with nutritional evidence. In the Netherlands, condensed milk was mainly an export commodity, for urban consumers who had no access to fresh milk. The cheaper and low-quality version of condensed milk was sweetened skim milk in tins, with all of the milk fat removed and consequently low in the fat-soluble vitamins A and D. As a by-product of butter making, fresh machine-skimmed milk (in Dutch taptemelk or ondermelk) was widely utilised in the Netherlands for animal feeding, in particular for pigs, and in milk condensing. It was also sold by the milkman in towns and cities for human consumption, but viewed by the general public as a poor man’s food.1 In Britain condensed skim milk was consumed by poor urban households, often for infant feeding. As a result of competition for this market in Britain, a bitter argument arose between the exporting Dutch condensed milk industry and the local producers of fresh milk.

The main sources of this study are two Dutch professional dairy journals and their British counterpart the Milk Industry. The Dutch dairy journals were well informed on what was happening in the UK. Relevant English articles were translated and published.

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