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Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6). This vitamin has been shown to be an essential growth factor for all experimental and domestic animals so far investigated. It is also known to be required by human beings for the metabolism of amino acids including the conversion of tryptophan to nicotinic acid. Pyridoxine was first identified in 1934 as the factor in the ‘vitamin B2 complex’, distinct from thiamin and riboflavin that would cure a specific nutritional dermatitis in rats; it was designated vitamin B6. In 1936 the vitamin was concentrated by Birch and György. Soon afterwards it was isolated and synthesized.

In the last article we saw how Goldberger, in 1926, demonstrated that the ‘Water soluble B’ factor of McCollum and Davies contained more than one vitamin. He showed that pellagra was associated with the lack of a vitamin and that the latter was distributed in a somewhat similar manner to the anti‐beri‐beri factor. However, Goldberger demonstrated that there was an essential difference between the two factors: the one preventing pellagra was more stable to heat. He called it the pellagra‐preventive, or P‐P factor.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of innovation in handicraft industry of Fiji and Tonga.

Data for this study was collected via face-to-face interviews with handicraft sellers in Fiji and Tonga. In total, 368 interviews were conducted in Fiji and Tonga out of which, 48 was from Tonga and 320 was from Fiji.

The results of this study show that eight factors; namely, value adding, design uniqueness, new product development, cultural uniqueness, advanced technology, experience of owner, ability of owner to adapt to trends in market and quality of raw materials have significant impact on level of innovation in handicraft industry of Fiji and Tonga.

To date, none of the existing studies have examined determinants of innovation in handicraft industry of the Pacific Island countries. This is a pioneering study that examines determinants of innovation in handicraft industry of Fiji and Tonga.

The implications which nutrition has for health are major considerations in all areas of food management. The paper draws together some of the points considered during the course of a major conference and outlines possible approaches to the application of nutrition in food management. Research into the diet of the military, and the understanding amongst different ranks of dietary issues, is described.

During the last 30 years there have been many and dramatic changes to the pattern of potato production and distribution in the UK. Varieties and cultural techniques have changed and so, too, have post‐harvest handling, storage, marketing and distribution. Any or all of these might have had an effect on the nutritional value of the potato but whether this was so was not known until a two‐year nutritional evaluation of retail potatoes in the UK was recently completed. This work was financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and carried out by Paul Finglas and Richard Faulks at the Food Research Institute, Norwich.

It is widely recognised that there is a significant gap in our knowledge on the nutritional content of meals provided by the catering industry. The annual National Household Food Consumption and Expenditure Survey,1 provides information on household food purchases, which is used to estimate the nutritional intake of individuals. It does not provide any nutritional information on meals purchased and consumed outside the home.

The standards of dietary management for the British Army stationed in barracks have improved quite considerably over the centuries. These improvements have been even more dramatic in the last twenty‐five years since the end of National Service to the point where it could be claimed that the food provided at least equals that found in many industrial catering establishments. The introduction of a wholly volunteer force has increased individual expectations, and if the right calibre of recruit is to be attracted and retained then these expectations need to be satisfied. However, despite the overall improvements in visible standards, these may not have been paralleled by the contribution which the military diet makes to the nutritional status of the soldier. Historically soldiers on joining the army suffered from deficiency diseases and the primary aim was to correct these and prevent any further recurrence. Deficiency diseases are now very rare and the limited research conducted recently indicates that the military diet has followed the general civilian trends. Diseases of affluence are likely to affect the military population in the same way as the civilian population.

This is the first of a short series of articles on the B vitamins. In this issue the discovery of these vitamins is described, together with a more detailed description of vitamin B1.

The Commonwealth Games were the inspiration of a Mr J. Ashley Cooper, who in a letter to The Times of October 1892 proposed a periodic sports gathering as a means of ‘increasing the goodwill and good understanding between nations of an Empire’. His dream became part reality in 1911, when an ‘Inter‐Empire Sports Meeting’ was staged in London to celebrate the coronation of George V. In 1928 Mr Bobby Robinson made a proposal at the Amsterdam Olympic Games to the representative nations from the Empire. He asked if they would participate in an all‐British Empire Games to be held in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930. Happily this saw the birth of the Commonwealth Games.

An individual's health and well‐being are directly related to his or her food intake. A lack of food or essential nutrients results in deficiency diseases and ultimately death. An excess of food or certain nutrients may have the same result. The quantity and quality of an individual's diet is assessed for both clinical and research purposes to identify any possible nutrient imbalance and to find associations between disease prevalence and food intake within populations. Data obtained from food intake studies can also be used to provide information on sections of a population at risk from deficiencies and excesses and therefore to plan health care programmes or to evaluate the effect of a government policy, for example, on reorganisation of school meals. Globally, data on food intake or at least food availability in different nations can be used in planning relief operations.