DYED BUTTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 259, 1 November 1932, Page 7

DYED BUTTER.

COMMON PRACTICE.

Attempt to Imitate Empire Article ? MINISTER QUESTIONED. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received noon.) LONDON, October 31. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, Dr. E. L. Burgin, was asked in the House of Commons whether the practice of dyeing foreign butter to give it the characteristic yellow colour of the grassfed New Zealand and Australian product could not be prohibited as it was prejudicial to Empire butters.

Dr. Burgin said that the dyeing of butter with annatto was a common practice in Britain and elsewhere. He had received no representations that it was prejudicial to Empire butters.

There was no power to prohibit the use of annatto. The Merchandise Marks Act provided that imported butter must be marked with the country of origin.

Annatto is a colouring matter obtained from the seeds of an ever-green plant from Brazil and Cayenne. It dyes silk, cotton and wool fibres., but the colour is fugitive, and its principal use is to colour butter, cheese, varnishes and lacquers, it is greatly adulterated with flour, chalk, gypsum, alkali, eoap, turmeric, red ochre, etc.