FREIGHT SPACE ECONOMY

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23349, 7 June 1941, Page 6

FREIGHT SPACE ECONOMY

TRANSIT COOLING (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, May 16. In refrigeration technical circles much attention is being directed at the present time to ways and means of saving ship’s space in the transport of perishable foods. The rigour of the struggle known as the Battle of the Atlantic compels this, but it is not so sure that the mass of invention and scientific device centred on this great problem is co-ordinated so well as it might be. At the Low Temperature Research Station at Cambridge we have scientists inventing a process for the reduction of meat to the smallest possible space by means of . vacuum dehydratibn. but the subject is considered by some to be so important 1 as. to warrant a special committee, including shipping and other experts. Under the Ministry of Food’s present scheme for the boning-out of frozen beef quarters, inquiries in the trade in London elicit the opinion that the scheme is well suited to forequarters but not to hindquarters. It is stated that the labour at the exporting end is not yet sufficiently skilled in this operation to do the job on the hind as the English butcher would do it. With the wholesale/retai] prices of Cores at Sd .per lb and that of hinds at IOJd, it is more economical to boneout forequarter meat. In regard to lamb, there' 1 is 3 strong, demand being expressed:;'tjjat^,‘lnstead of the ‘’telescoping" process now being employed for stowage, it should be shipped m “sides," which, it is claimed, would allow it to arrive in better coridition, besides lessening the refrigerating duty when freezing down. The present method of boning-out before freezing and shipment eliminates certain parts that are.not readily acceptable by the English butcher, such as portions of the brisket and flank, known as the pole end of the brisket, which contains much gristle; this gristle does not even yield fat when rendered. It is estimated that approximately 20 per cent, freight space is being saved with the present system. Commercial experts, however, declare that up to 50 per cent, is possible with an extension of the boning and trimming method and the adoption of quick-freezing, and packaging. In the altered food traJnc oMhe war period, a much greater strain has been placed upon the keeping qualities of meat and other perishables in their newly schemed journeys from producer to consumer. To obviate decomposition on their road or rail trips under the Meat Rationing Scheme, meat consignments have been cooled on the longer journeys by dry ice or water ice. This has often been done under makeshift methods, and the cost of this type of cooling has been found relatively heavy. For this reason, an effort has been made to devise some more economical means of vehicle cooling, and more than one large transit undertaking has experimented to this end. The Research Department of the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway, is said to have arrived at a solution of this problem, having patented a new type of mechanical cooling for railway refrigerator vans. This is an absorption refrigerating machine of very simple design, working with calcium chloride. Many attempts have been made in the past to provide a vehicular cooling plant, but all have generally failed owing to their Inability to stand up for long to the conditions of the road.

An average of not less than 30 cents per lb for butter-fat is being asked by Canadian dairy farmers through their organisations for the season’s supply. It is expected that one-seventh of the land under the plough in Northern Ireland this year will be sown with linen flax. In the noted flax growing district, the proportion will be much heavier ■ Good Hay is in demand for Australia. Farmers having first-class Rye and Clover Hay should get in touch with Alex. McDonald and Co., “Race Horse Hay .Specialists,” 194 Cashel street, Christchurch. ’Phone 38-800. — ! Spend a shilling ana make pounas by advertising your goods in “The Press" Classified' Columns Office open till 10 p.m —2