Coconut As

Food

Interesting Research By

IN a period when there is ini ing anxiety concerning world’ food supplies, som terest is being taken in the bilities of the coconut as a fo< human beings.

One of the research activit the new South Pacific Comm is concerned with the vah foodstuffs produced in the tr Islands; and attention recentl been given to the coconut.

An interim report in the mission’s quarterly Bulletin, that, so far, an examination published scientific literature revealed that no thorough inve tion of the food value of the nut has ever been undertaken, certain aspects have been exar It always has been regarded mercially merely as a sour sweet vegetable oil and as a for stock. Yet the growing i desiccated coconut shows the of the nut as a food for hurm bio-chemist is now making a amination.

Meanwhile, here are some ( facts already gathered.

The flesh of the fresh greer has a rather higher protein than maize as a chicken food, meal —what is left after desici and extraction of oil —is eqi maize as a food for pigs or < The amino-acid value of the nut is high and combined wit! nut or soya meal, the coconut in the form of press-cake, s make a very high-grade gr food for fowls or mammals.

So far as calories are cono the coconut is probably the h in value of all foods, and cc oil is the most easily digested fats —including butter fat.

The carbohydrate value is known, and will be investigat The coconut is low in vit£ but these could be added to cc products in the form of co trates. The calcium— bone ing—value is low. Potash i principal mineral present, toddy (from the flower buds) tains 16 per cent, sugar.

From the point of view of h consumption, flour ground froi flesh of the nut after extract] all oil, is one of the most pror of the new uses.

The SPC investigation is not plete on this subject, but would appear to be great pos ties for coconut flour mixed wheat or other flours.

Results of the SPC’s preser search should be of considi interest to the coconut produc