As children my sister and I were given cod-liver oil and malt extract, as were most other children at that time. I seem to think it was in a brown jar I associate with chemist’s shops, and we would have a teaspoon every day. it was thick like toffee sauce and had a strange, almost metallic taste which I quite liked. I am sure I would find it disgusting now! I’m not sure what my sister thought, she was extremely fussy with food! It was given us as a health supplement.
When my dad was at school in the 1920’s, all the children were offered malt, and I think it was 1 penny a day and they had to bring their own spoon. There were great big jars and the teacher would dip the spoon in and bring it out, twiddling it to catch they syrupy strings, winding it round and round. Dad said it looked like a lovely big, golden-brown lollipop… unfortunately for him it made him sick. He would stand watching his chums liking up their spoonful of malt, enjoying every tongueful. Every so often he would bring his penny and his spoon and try again with the same result each time, he was sick.
My husband also had malt as a child, his was the Virol brand – ours was just what the chemist sold with no particular brand name. It was first produced by the company which made Bovril in 1899, and its target group were children and invalids and anyone who needed food supplements. A year later Virol became its own company, although still within the Bovril group. Virol continued for the next fifty years or so; you can’t buy it anymore, but you can get malt extract, should you so desire it!
Lois Elsden 
I had Virol. I actually really liked it. CodliverOil on the other hand was a bit of a nightly ordeal. It was when I first separated the words into Cod = fish liver=organ oil what comes out of it, that I stopped taking it. Ah, whatever became of the fifties?
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I guess national health orange juice made up for it though? School milk I really hated, yuk!
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What was the supposed health benefits of the malt? Was it supposed to keep you regular?
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No, it was full of vitamins and minerals – supposedly, it was supposed to ‘build you up’… now it seems that the amount of sugar was probably bad for your teeth!
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From the days when poor children were underweight, it provided masses of calories as well as nutrients.
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It was a great scheme for healthy children – I wonder when it started, during the depression do you think?
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I’m not sure they got any help at all during the depression. I will ask my auntie but I reckon probably rationing during WW2
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Maybe when my dad was offered it as a child in the 20’s it was just a local thing… needs investigation!!
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