NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20551, 20 May 1932, Page 13

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

' TO THE EDITOR OF THE PKESS. gj r> As a correspondent points out, one of the causes of poor quality in cream, with the resultant poor quality ia New Zealand butter, is putrefaction caused by the careless handling of milk or cream jn a. number of small farms. However, the use of small separators on farms has become universal, because it does not pay to carry to central depots the greai extra quantity

of milk compared with cream, otherwise butter factories could take fresh milk and separate the cream at the factory. Also it must be recognised that New Zealand has now reached the adult stage, and has to earn its own ining, because its infancy, when it could get "something for nothing" on borrowed money, has passed. Therefore carelessness must be paid for by the careless. Fortunately, carelessness can be checked by the factories paying a . lower price for inferior cream, or rejecting dream that contains an excess of putrefactive or similar microorganisms, as ascertained by the reductase test. This test, by.changing a solution of methylene blue to white, •shows in a simple manner when objectionable bacteria have used up all the desirable oxygen in a milk or cream. Given definite strength of the blue, ana a time factor, it gives accurate, information, in a reasonable time, ot the proportion of objectionable putrefactive types of micro-organisms that n-ay be present. The comparison of the flavour of frozen New, Zealand butter with that produced in Great Britain or in countries near it, should not be made, because the essentia] condition for long storage of butter is that as much as possible of the fermentable matters, e.g., suit or, card, must be washed out, so that the fat can be obtained as pure as possible. I*- i«s chiefly these fermentable matters that give the characteristic flavour to butted intended for early consumption. But because such butter does not keep well, it is likely soon to give way to better produced by methods simi ar U those used in New Zealand. This butter keeps well, unless if becomes --imaged by putrefactive products vhich cannot be separated from the buttnr. Yet always there will be unavoidable differences between fresh and

stored butter on account of the unstable nature of the butter-fat. — Yours, etc.,' A. A. BICKERTON. May 19th, 1932. 7 TO THE EDITOB OF THE iPBESS. Sir,—At present in some parts "of Canterbury cream is being collected by the dairy factories once a week only, and unless the farmer has a running stream convenient to his house it is difficult for him to keep his cream fresh for that length of time. I have proved, to my own satisfaction at least, that it is during these days that the cream de-_ teriorates. In the absence of a stream I find the following plan effective. Half fill a wooden cask with water and keep a damp sack round this. Suspend the cream can in this water and over the whole hang an old tent fly or sometaing of that nature to keep the sun off. With this arrangement my cream is now "finest grade" where previously it was "first" and occasionally "second" quality. Of course, the water in the cask must be changed periodically and the lid of the can left slightly open. One of your correspondents thinks that with more inspectors the quality of the cream would be improved. Surely there are enough inspectors as it is to advise farmers.. In any case, have not the dairy factories the power to reject cream which does not . -me up to standard? If they do accept fourth grade cream, there is no need for them to mix it with the cream from which their first or second grade butter is made. . May I here mention that in spite ot an army of .Government inspectors there seen, to be no check rn the sale of. bad eggs! On several occasion* xe-j

cently I have paid over 2s a dozen for eggs, a lar<?c percentage qf which were quite uneatable, and none of which I dared to boil. When eggs get scarce, apparently some farmers and others hunt all the hedgerows for them and sell anything they" find there of an oval sjjape. If the shopa are foolish enough to accept these on trust it should not be possible for them at least to pass them off on- an unsuspecting public as new laid eggs.—Yours, etc., KISHTA. May 19th, 1932.