PRESERVATION OF FOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 161, 9 July 1926, Page 7

PRESERVATION OF FOOD.

A SCIENTIST'S CONCLUSION.

CHILLING BEST FOR MEAT

LONDON, July S. Professor A. R. T. Woods, an engineer, in an address to the congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute, instanced many hygienic and commercial advantages of chilled meat over frozen meat and also many disabilities which operate against transporting chilled meat for long distances, such as from Australia, The speaker said the methods used in Argentina for the chilling and transportation of meat were nearly perfect, both scientifically and mechanically, but they were somewhat neutralised by inefficient handling and transport after the meat reached Britain. This was obviously equally applicable to Australian exports, which were received under similar conditions. The general impression created by Mr. Woods was that freezing deteriorates meat, whereas chilling preserves the essentials and that therefore chilled meat must ultimately supersede frozen meat. Mr. Franklin Kidd, a member of the Cambridge Low Temperature Research Committee, who, with Dr. West and ~>r. M. N. Kidd, investigated the transportation troubles in connection with Australian apples and pears, suggested that the ideal procedure would be to ship unripe fruit, using low temperatures during its transport without freezing it. Subsequently tie fruit should be allowed to ripen at temperatures of 60 to 70 degrees Fashrenheit. The speaker said he could clearly foresee the time when conditioning warehouses and stores, equipped with means of controlling the temperature, would be universally employed for scientifically maturing fruit subsequent to its transport, instead of during its transport. As a result of the latter system it often arrives in England unripe or over-ripe, and but rarely is of the best possible quality.— (A. and X.Z.)