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Food Office Orange Juice

Tacitus

Tacitus

master brummie
Can anyone remember this "nectar" that we used to have in early to mid-50's. (probably went back to the war years)

I remember it having a gorgeous taste so I am wondering if it was some sort of Government concoction to ensure we all got a proper dose of vitamins.

But how did it work?

Did our parents have to buy it or was it dished out on a sort of rationing basis.

It wasn't a concentrate but came "ready to drink" in glass bottles with a foil cap - so strong similarities with the description in the Suncap thread.

Ooooh! I'd give anything for a bottle right here and now??!!

MB
 
Mike

That's right - it seemed to have a taste and consistency all of its own.

It obviously wasn't pure orange juice like we have today - but it was thicker than diluted "orange squash."

I wonder what was in it?

Perhaps we could rediscover the recipe and make our fortunes!!

T
 
I often wonder if this 'stuff' caused some of the tooth decay we suffered later on!!
 
Wendy

I suggested above that it might have been stuffed full of vitamins.

But as I remember the taste with such affection it had occured to me that it might have been stuffed full of SUGAR!!
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T
 
I think you will find it was the preservative (sulphur dioxide) used that caused it to taste different.

From https://journals.cambridge.org/acti...976&jid=BJN&volumeId=1&issueId=2-3&aid=766968 :
"The black-currant syrup and puree were sponsored by the Ministry
of Food in 1940 for distribution by the Ministry’s own clinics to young children;
orange syrup was introduced in 1941 to cover a wide age range, while the rose-hip
syrup was sponsored by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Supply (Directorate
of Medical Supplies) early in the war for general sale to priority classes (children,
invalids and expectant mothers). All three products were sold with 0-035% of sulphur
dioxide and, although at the inception of the black-currant and orange-syrup scheme
there were some heartburnings on account of the processers’ demand that sulphur
dioxide should be allowed, no official evidence could be adduced to suggest that the
preservative was dangerous."
 
Tacitus I remember it well and loved it too. Our milkman used to deliver it to the door but am not sure if it was the same as when I was a baby. I don't think it could have been. The one you were on about mom used to give me to drink with a codliver oil capsule. My Pete still has two oranges a day and maybe that's where his love of them stems from. TTFN. Jean.
 
Lynda I remember that too but the other stuff was in a different shaped bottle and very yellow and thick. Pete tells me they are different but then he is older and remembers further back than myself. Jean.
 
My memory is that it was delivered by our Co-Op milkman and coupons were exchanged. I reckon it was free knowing how tight with money my dad was. Cod Liver Oil and Malt was a thing I detested along with plain Cod liver oil. Strange tasting vitamin tablets as well. With our Mothers having just gone through WW2 I wonder if the Ministry of Health were concerned about the effect of rationing on the new generation.
 
Richard when Pete left school he was on the milk and his boss would stop off for a cuppa at some of the ladies houses and while he did he would partake of the orange juice while he was not looking. He said his boss took a long time over a cup of tea sometimes. I too remember having the malt with the orange and loved it similar to careb. Jean.
 
There was a very hot summer in 1959 or 60. Some shopkeeper had the bright idea of putting them in the freezer and producing the biggest ice lolley, minus stick, you ever saw. A real live saver to us kids. I seem to remember it had a competitor but cannot remember its name.

ps You nipped off the one corner and as it slowly melted you gained a nice cold drink. One day it leaked over an exrcise book in my desk which meant my backside and Mr Oversize Plimsoll had another meeting.
 
"He said his boss took a long time over a cup of tea sometimes. " Quote GGjean

Us kids came in two varieties. Auburn Hair and Brown Eyes or Black Hair and Blue Eyes. My dad said we were Co-Op Dairy or Midland Counties Dairy. I was to young to make the connection at the time.
 
Yes i remember this syrupy orange juice together with a spoonfull of what i think was called Virol, wonder what the kids of today would think of these ?
 
The syruppy orange stuff that came in what looked like medicine bottles was orrible, I think it was only meant for small kids and pregnant women-possibly as a source of vitamins. But I think one r two people on here have got it mixed up with the orange squash in bottles like Pasteurised milk bottles, 1/3 pint like school milk, or pint bottles from the milkman.
 
If my memory serves me right the orange juice from the food office was not the same as that delicious stuff delivered by the milkman. The milkman delivered the one third bottle with the foil top, the food office stuff, totally different but still wonderful, had a screw on top. I don't remember it as particularly sweet, but it was heaven to me. Mind you, I used to also like a spoonful of National Dried Milk straight from the tin!! My mother would have given me a clip round the ear if she had known I used to pinch some!
 
If I remember rightly you had to go to the baby welfare to get the orange juice along with the dried milk for the baby. I can remember going under the bridge on Crossfield Road to the welfare when I was little.
 
Where we lived, in Warstock until 1954, there was no welfare in the area, we collected National Dried and Orange Juice from the Food Office. Once we left Warstock it was a local Welfare Clinic. Dreary places they were, but I guess state-of-the-art at the time.
 
Enid and I lived in Cleeve Road Yardley Wood when our daughter Stephanie was born in 1955, there was a Welfare
Clinic near door to the library where Enid used to get the baby weighted and get the orange juice and National Dried Milk etc; Gosh is it really 55 years ago? They say time flies when you are having fun!! Bernard
 
INREMEMBER THE oRANGE . iT WAS A SWEET CORDIAL WE USED TO GHET FROM tOWER hILL cLINIC. tHE STUFF IN FOIL TOP BOTTLES WE GOT FROM OUR mIDLAND cOUNTIES mILKMAN. Another thing we got was Cod liver Oil which I hated but my brother loved, and if you were "off colour" and needed a tonic, it was Minadex, Tasted awful, didnt work.
 
i can also remember our mom trecking to the carnegie welfare centre in hunters road for the little bottles of orange juice...we also used to get the orange juice that was in milk bottles with foil top from the milkman...(you can still get that in some places) yukky....cod liver oil....i hated the stuff but we were dosed up with it non the less especially in the winter months...

lyn
 
What with the war-time rationing ensuring a greater share-out of food than ever before, and the free Orange juce/vitamin tablets et al, this country produced the healthiest generation ever! Now we live in an era where we have the greatest choice of food-stuffs, and we've become fat, un-fit, weaklings! Perhaps we should go back to the ration....it would give kids something to do, standing for a few hours in an orderly queue for their weekly 2oz of 'suck'! I'd certainly lose a few unwanted pounds too!
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JohnO said:
What with the war-time rationing ensuring a greater share-out of food than ever before, and the free Orange juce/vitamin tablets et al, this country produced the healthiest generation ever! Now we live in an era where we have the greatest choice of food-stuffs, and we've become fat, un-fit, weaklings! Perhaps we should go back to the ration....it would give kids something to do, standing for a few hours in an orderly queue for their weekly 2oz of 'suck'! I'd certainly lose a few unwanted pounds too!
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When I was little, 50s / 60s everybody ate English breakfasts, chips, sausages, all fried in lard. Dran full milk or Stera (council house milk) Drank mild, had 2 sugars in tea. All the stuff you worry about now

everybody was thin....Everybody went to work on foot, on the bus, or on a bike.

Says a lot for todays lifestyle.
 
They still didhed out orange juice at the clinic when my eldest daughter was born and I used to give it her also Cod Liver Oil. I gave her one spoonful and no m ore because the smell made me heave. I used to get Cod Liver Oil and Malt as a child, didn't mind it - my brother got Virol because he was thin - I hated that - but full of vitamins - it smelled of iron.
Sheri
 
I can remember the welfare orange in the screw top bottle - quite liked it. Can also remember the cod liver oil - Mum used to give it to us while we were in the bath so it didn't get all over our clothes when we spat it out! I also had Minadex and Virol, (I think I was anaemic) didn't much like the first but developed a taste for the second!
 
Country Mouse, I used to give my son his cod liver oil when he was in the bath as it made an awful mess on his "Cherub" vest when I first gave it to him. I can also confirm that the thick orange juice in the medicine type bottle was given free at the Welfare Centre, I used to take Michael to the one in Sutton Street, Aston, where he was also weighed.

This is a little tale of the other orange juice in the third of a pint bottles bought from the milkman. A woman I worked with found that someone was stealing the orange juice left by the milkman, so one morning she waited for it to be delivered, emptied the juice into a glass, and mixed some orange paint with water and carefully put the foil back on the bottle. She never had any stolen afterwards.
 
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