“Pure White Bread ? Bleached Flour, Contestations and Regulation in Great Britain in the first half of the Twentieth Century”
Résumé
Why was bleaching—despite the early concerns about this new food technology-- left unregulated for over half a century? This article focuses on flour “bleaching,” the processes to artificially whiten flour developed in the first half of the twentieth century. It shows how, instead of circumscribing adulteration to practices which they could identify precisely, most scientists in fact foregrounded the limits of their expertise, and called for a precautionary approach when dealing with new food technologies and the attending risks. Setting the British case within a more international context provides a window onto the difficulties faced by regulatory regimes which narrowed their definition of adulteration to practices which were demonstrably harmful. This type of regime led to legitimize the use of new potentially dangerous products and processes and made further regulation much more complicated once these technologies had become widespread.