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Series

Ministry of Food and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Emergency Services...

Catalogue reference: MAF 353

What's it about?

MAF 353

This series covers all aspects of food dehydration in the Ministry of Food and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, including administration of the Aberdeen Experimental Factory. Several pieces relating to the factory contain plans...

Full description and record details

Reference

MAF 353

Title
Ministry of Food and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Emergency Services Divisions and successors: Registered Files, Food Dehydration (DRY Series)
Date

1948-1961

Description

This series covers all aspects of food dehydration in the Ministry of Food and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, including administration of the Aberdeen Experimental Factory. Several pieces relating to the factory contain plans and photographs.

Related material

Further papers on food dehydration are in

Separated material

Other DRY files are to be found in

MAF 99

Held by
The National Archives, Kew
Former department reference

DRY file series

Legal status

Public Record(s)

Language

English

Creator(s)
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Emergency Services Division II, 1955-1960
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Food Science and Atomic Energy Division, 1961-1962
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Food Science and Plant Health Division, 1963-1964
  • Ministry of Food, Dehydration, 1942-1955
Physical description

23 file(s)

Access conditions

Open

Accumulation dates

1941 to 1964

Administrative / biographical background

In 1948, a joint Ministry of Food/Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) working party was set up to make recommendations for the development of a viable dehydration industry in the UK and the Commonwealth, following concerns expressed by the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Defence Science to the Defence Committee of the Cabinet in January of that year. The working party reported in June 1948 and recommended that the Ministry of Food should acquire an experimental factory to work on food dehydration. A site adjacent to the DSIR Torrey Research Station in Aberdeen was acquired, and the newly-constructed factory was officially opened in 1951. The factory, which undertook applied research into dehydration of food, with particular emphasis on defence aspects (ie reducing bulk and weight of stored food, while extending its shelf life) was under the general direction of a Ministry of Food (after 1955 Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) Chief Scientific Officer, but day-to-day staffing and operation was carried out by a service agency (MacFisheries, a subsidiary of Unilever). In 1961 the experimental work of the factory was completed, and from then on it was involved in commercial production.

Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C10753/

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This record is held at The National Archives, Kew

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Within the department: MAF

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You are currently looking at the series: MAF 353

Ministry of Food and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Emergency Services Divisions and successors: Registered Files, Food Dehydration (DRY Series)