Abstract
IN the opening paper of a symposium on A “Chemistry and Food Science” in Section B (Chemistry), held at the Blackpool meeting of the British Association, Dr. Leslie Harris, of the Cambridge Nutritional Laboratory, spoke of a ‘food cycle’, analogous to the ‘nitrogen cycle’ of the chemist. To explain what was meant by the food cycle, he said that food in the first place must be collected or gathered; then it may undergo some manufacturing process; next it may be transported (by sea, rail or road); after which it may be preserved or stored in the cold; before at last it is prepared for the table and eaten. To complete the ‘food cycle’, it has to be remembered that food, or some part of it, is ultimately converted into manure, and so fertilization is brought into the pictureand with fertilization goes food production, the raising of crops and the rearing of farm animals. In each of these stages of the food cycle, the work of the chemist has been of service to the community, and in the discussion each stage was in turn dealt with by an expert. It might be thought that the logical order is to discuss first food manufacture, and then transport and storage and finally nutrition. On the other hand, all these complicated processes are of no avail, if the final product fails to nourishso that nutrition must be the final criterion, and may be given pride of place.
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Chemistry and Food Science. Nature 138, 744–746 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138744a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138744a0