Processed baby foods

The Pediatrician and the War Processed B a b y Foods At the meeting of t h e Executive Board held in June, action was taken in regard to the limitation of processed baby foods to children under ]8 months of age. The following letter has been received from the Office of Price Administration. Gentlemen : Your letter of June 10, 1942, addressed to Mr. Austin C. Hoffman, Food Price Division Director, has been referred to this office for reply. We are in accord with ,your thinking concerning processed baby foods with the exception of restricting the sale of processed baby foods to infants under 18 months of age. While it may be administratively possible to amend Ration Order 13 in such a manner as to accomplish your recommendation, it is felt that this move would mean placing the burden of administration in the hands of the retail grocery operators who, as you know, are already overburdened with work. I t is felt that they, the retail grocers, are not in a position to handle this additional job. We would like to point out that since March 1, 1943, beginning date of the processed foods rationing program, we have done a number of things that we think will help protect processed baby food supplies. To begin with~ dehydrated soups were reduced to a very low point value and eventually removed from rationing altogether, and now canned soups, juices and other more or less stapled processed foods have been brought down to the point price range of processed baby foods. As stated above, we feel that this action will take quite u bit of pressure (adult buying for adult consumption) off of processed baby food. Available supplies of baby foods have been determined and a certain per cent of this availability has been scheduled to move by periods (monthly). During March, 1943, we had scheduled to move 6.16,000 standard eases; actual movement during March was 250~000 eases. We had scheduled to move during April 679,000 eases; the actual movement was 439~000 eases. We have only preliminary figures for May; these show the actual movement during the month substantiMty smaller than the amount scheduled to move during the month. Of the total availabilit:7 of processed baby food, vegetable base represents forty per cent; fruit base, twenty-seven per cent; meat compound base, twenty-seven per cent; and dessert base, six per cent. To date the movement of the different varieties has been in line with or below this schedule of movement which, of course, is based on supply. We appreciate letters such as yours; it has merit, and it has been given its due consideration by this office. I f irL the future it is deemed advisable that our control of processed baby foods should be changed, your recommendation will be given further consideration at that time. 2~9