Is Tea a Food?

As the First World War dragged on, food supplies became a problem, particularly after the German U-boat campaign took effect. Local and sporadic shortages became common, until eventually it was recognised that some form of centralised food control was required. 

There were concerns that some people might be obtaining more than their fair share, and so the Food Controller introduced the Food Hoarding Order on 5^th April 1917. The intention was to stop people building up stocks of food and a number of cases were successfully prosecuted. 

Mr Oscar Harmer was a prominent member of the community in Coventry, where he was the manager of Messrs Albert Herbert Ltd, a machine tool maker. Acting on a tip-off, the chief of police and an officer from the local food control committee interviewed him in his office in January 1918 and then escorted him to his house, where they discovered a hoard of groceries including 400lbs of tea. 

He appeared in a crowded court room to face charges relating to each item of food. But his lawyer pulled a masterstroke – although the sugar, sardines, ham and butter were food, surely this could not be the case with the tea? The magistrates did not offer an opinion, but convicted him on the food offences and sentenced him to one month's imprisonment on each count. 

The matter went to appeal and the Warwickshire Quarter Sessions reduced to a total fine of £60. But the tea question went to the High Court – was tea a food? This engaged the finest legal brains in the land: coffee and cocoa were consumed, but tea leaves were of course discarded. 

Another case, of Mrs Ellen Hinde in Oxfordshire, also reached the High Court, which finally decided that tea was not a food within the meaning of the Food Hoarding Order, and the convictions were quashed. 

The wily Food Controller anticipated this unfavourable outcome, and two days before the decision was announced, in May, he changed the order to include ‘… every article which ordinarily enters into or is used in cothe mposition or preparation of food and shall include tea, coffee, and cocoa’.