the directors of the research associations have their own personal contacts with the appropriate laboratories in the commonwealth countries . apart from defence considerations , it is in the interest of our national economy that we should strive to increase our home production of food in terms of our livestock population and yield of crops per acre . superimposed on all these considerations is the fact that with the improving economic status of the population there is an increasing emphasis on the intrinsic acceptability of food and particularly on its presentation in the retail shops . from the above brief introduction it follows that the pattern of food research should embrace the following broad fields : ( 1 ) . methods of increasing production . ( 2 ) . preservation ( transport , storage and distribution ) . ( 3 ) . processing . ( 4 ) . acceptability or intrinsic quality , including freedom from abnormal flavour or taint . ( 5 ) . nutrition and hygiene . ( 6 ) . the possible toxicological effects of substances added to food during growth , transport and processing . ( 7 ) . presentation . each of these is a vast field of research and investigation . the overall pattern . it is difficult to say where food research begins ; it involves all the scientific disciplines - physics , chemistry , mathematics , engineering , each ultimately wedded to one or more of the different divisions of biology . apart from supplying graduate staff , therefore , the universities must in the long run set the level of food research ; they must also supply much of the fundamental knowledge required for advances in the science and technology of food . certain of the universities with departments of agriculture and horticulture are of course carrying out continuous research directly on food , and this applies also to many biochemical departments . the concern of the government is clear enough since an adequate supply of inexpensive food of satisfactory nutritional quality is essential for our survival and for our national prosperity . thus there are some 23 research institutes or units wholly financed by the agricultural research council , and the ministry of agriculture , fisheries and food has its own food science and atomic energy division . the agricultural research council is also concerned with the research programmes of 22 other institutes which are financed wholly or in part by the council or , in the case of eight institutes in Scotland , by the department of agriculture for Scotland . special grants are also made to universities and other organisations for research on subjects of interest to the council . the total annual cost of all this research by the council now exceeds &amp;pound;5 million . in the past the interest of the A.R.C has been in animals and crops - their production and nutrition and the reduction of disease ; one exception is the work of the Hannah dairy research institute over the past 25 years on the keeping quality of dried milk . more recently , however , the council , in accepting responsibility for the low temperature research station , Cambridge , the Ditton laboratory , and the pest infestation laboratory , Slough , has moved outside the farm gate and has thus extended its interest in food to include storage and preservation . to quote from its last annual report : the importance has been previously stressed of considering the production , handling , storage , packaging and processing of food as links in one continuous chain of operations , the final objective of which is to provide the nation with food of the highest quality at the lowest economic price . the council has therefore always in mind the need to integrate research on production with that on the intermediate steps involved in the passage of food from the farm to the dinner table . this is equally true whether the production is on our own farms or those overseas . to this end the council is keeping in touch with research on production throughout the commonwealth and , where possible , in other countries from which our food comes . the establishment of the overseas research council , of which the council &apos;s Secretary is an ex officio member , will , it is hoped , help to strengthen the links already existing between the overseas producer and those responsible for handling and processing imported foodstuffs in this country . to help the council in its wider responsibility the ministry of agriculture , fisheries and food and the Secretary of state for Scotland have recently set up a food research advisory committee to advise on those food problems requiring investigation or research and on their order of priority . finally , to complete the picture of food research institutes , mention must be made of the Torry research station of D.S.I.R and its associated Humber laboratory in Hull . whereas these two laboratories are concerned with the very practical problems of handling , storage and distribution of fish , their fundamental research - for example in bacteriology and that on fish oils and antioxidants - is of great interest and value to all food research laboratories . on the nutritional side the medical research council , with its many research units working directly on nutrition or in related fields , advises the government through the ministry of health , and the chief medical Officer to the ministry has his own standing committee to discuss problems of food and health . among more than 50 industrial associations sponsored by the department of scientific and industrial research are four working wholly on food problems . research carried out by these four bodies , whose work will be mentioned later , naturally has a strong bias generally , but not completely , towards the problems involved in the processing of food and its acceptability by the consumer . there is in addition the research and , particularly , development carried out wholly by industry . the results of this are to be seen , for example , in the margarine and soft drinks industries , in the development of containers for canned foods , in the relatively new development of packaged frozen foods , and in the sizeable export trade mainly in processed foods ( more than &amp;pound;160 million annually ) from a country so largely dependent on imported basal foods . another notable example of research financed wholly by industry is that of the brewing industry research foundation at Nutfield , Surrey , now an established national institute . the pharmaceutical and chemical industries should also be mentioned in connection with the large-scale production of vitamins , the production of pure substances to counter the various forms of deterioration , and the introduction of many substances which act as aids to processing . the foregoing is an over-simplification of the pattern of government , government-aided and industrial food research in this country ; it is uneven and thin in places , but evidently it does deal with food from the farm or field to the table as well as nutritional quality . the research structure has of course developed piecemeal and the type and scope of the work of any individual institute is rarely exclusive . on the whole , judging by the amount of money spent on research , it would appear that the emphasis is on production - perhaps understandable in a country that has to import so much of its food . nevertheless some might argue that since the purpose of food is to keep man fit and healthy the greatest emphasis should be on its nutritional quality . furthermore nutritional research has hitherto been confined almost exclusively to the food requirements of children and adolescents . but we have now moved into a phase when the nutrition of the adult calls for more research , particularly in view of the growing belief that the type of food man eats may be a factor in his susceptibility to certain diseases . except in a state of emergency , however , people will continue to eat what they like and not what is necessarily best for them . it might also be claimed that as a complement to research on production there should be sustained research on the synthesis of protein , fat and carbohydrate to insure against a food shortage from any cause ; by its nature this research is more a challenge to the scientific workers in the universities . the food research associations . there are four research associations concerned wholly with food : the British baking industries research association . the research association of British flour-millers . the British food manufacturing industries research association . the fruit and vegetable canning and quick freezing research association , often referred to as the Campden research station . the primary interest of each of these associations is to improve and standardize the manufacturing or processing methods and the quality of the final products of the particular industry it serves . in contrast with most of the research units associated with the agricultural research council , the emphasis is on the factors outside the farm gate . at the same time the quality of the final product must be influenced by the quality of the raw material of the industry , and the methods of processing may influence its nutritional quality . in the overall food research pattern , therefore , the work of the research associations ( coupled with that of the food industries ) is complementary to that of the agricultural and medical research councils and the universities . this seems logical but when one looks at the relatively small expenditure of the food research associations , compared for example with the &amp;pound;5 million vote of the agricultural research council , it is paradoxical . for 1960 the incomes were : . of this total &amp;pound;207 840 was provided by industry and the remainder by D.S.I.R . it must be remembered , however , that a research association , by its nature and organisation , should be an extremely objective , efficient and economic research unit . for the most part it has no need to search for its problems , and the solution to a particular problem can usually be tested out at once in a member &apos;s plant without the expense of a pilot plant , etc . furthermore it has behind it the stimulating urge and interest of its members , just as it can call on their experience and judgment to help it decide how far it is profitable to pursue a particular line of enquiry . it might be said that these conditions are similar to those of the private laboratory of an individual food manufacturer . they are , but the important difference is that the research association serves a whole industry and this , coupled with the fact that it has close links with D.S.I.R and other government departments , encourages it to work along independent and pioneer lines in both its research and applied work . its members realize that this must be so if the association is to be their scientific liaison with the government departments concerned with their particular industry . the work of the food standards committee of the ministry of agriculture , fisheries and food affords a notable example : this committee when considering a particular foodstuff usually invites the director of the appropriate research association to attend its meetings and , in some cases , to act as assessor to the committee . although a research association serves a whole industry it is significant that often the work of the association has encouraged individual firms to start up or extend their own laboratories . in this way the research associations have brought a much greater scientific outlook and interest into the industry as a whole than their budgets and work would indicate . co-operative research . apart from collaboration between themselves it is traditional and in fact essential for the food research associations to collaborate whenever possible with other laboratories that specialize in some particular aspect of food science and technology . this is usually of mutual advantage since the research association has its own specialized knowledge and equipment to offer . thus a notable example is the joint work with the M.A.F.F in connection with food defence plans . similarly there is continuous contact and collaboration with the low temperature research station , Cambridge , and the pest infestation laboratory , Slough ( both A.R.C ) , the ministry &apos;s food science and atomic energy and infestation control divisions , and the laboratory of the government chemist . a particularly intimate case is that of the British food manufacturing industries research association , which has seconded staff to the low temperature research station to work on the irradiation of foods as a possible method of preservation . again , the associations can call on the resources of the commonwealth mycological institute , which maintains a collection of fungi many of which are of interest in research into certain food problems . 