FOOD: A Better Staff

What hymns are sung, what praises said

For homemade miracles of bread?

—Louis Untermeyer

Since 1941 the Food & Drug Administration has been investigating the chemical miracles of the bread turned out by big U.S. bakeries. The Government wondered if synthetic vitamins and other chemicals had the same food value as the milk and butter in homemade bread. Last week the Food & Drug Administration decided that grandmother had something. It published an official standard for baker's bread, cut down on the use of chemical "extenders" for shortening. Banned altogether: new chemical "emulsifiers," which keep bread soft, thus persuade some consumers that a loaf is fresh after it has gone stale.