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

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.