Experimental Shipment Of Packaged Joints Of Lamb

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27565, 24 January 1955, Page 11

Experimental Shipment Of Packaged Joints Of Lamb

(New Zealand Press Association)'

GISBORNE, January 22. When the City of Quebec cleared Napier nine days ago for the United states, one of her holds carried a load of lamb in pieces instead of ice-bound carcases.

The City of Quebec is carrying a collection of cut lamb joints, each piece neatly sealed into a plastic bag. The meat, sent from a works at Wairoa, will be untouched by human hand until ready to be. popped into some American housewife’s oven. Company officials believe they may be able to develop a regular trade with the United States. are aiming at a selective market, said the works superintendent (Mr F. Westcott), “in places nke the United States, Honolulu, and Bermuda, where price is not the main objection. Pre-cut and attractivelypackaged meat is what the market wants. ”

♦.Cutting 1S re 8 as so important that the company sent one of its American employees to New Zealand recently to show works officials the be A, m ?th°d of cutting lamb anti beef. • *v Sti ? food Packaging—now routine in the American retail trade—will be possible in New Zealand by use of tbe Products of a £lOO,OOO factory w a x been built in Australia. At the Wairoa works, lamb is killed and frozen in the normal manner. The carcases are cut into two hind legs, two fore-quarters, and individual rib and loin chops. Bag Shrunk on to Joint The joints are put into the thin transparent plastic bags, which are placed over a nozzle which withdraws all the air by vacuum pump.

The mouth is given a couple ot twists and sealed with a metal clip. The bagged joint is put into a tub of hot water- This shrinks the plastic to a skin-tight fit over the meat. Chops are treated in the same fashion, with three ribs or two loins to each bag. Because plastic will probably be too expensive fmr these smaller pieces, the Wairoa Works experimented with cellophane envelopes, the edges of which are sealed by heat and with wax-paper wrapping for shipment. The cuts are packed into 501 b cases, each holding eight or nine joints and several bags of chops. The trial consignment of 40,0001 b contained a number of joints cut in different fashions and sealed with different packaging materials. It was possible, said Mr Westcott, that packaged joints would be put on the New Zealand market if a demand was found to exist.

He thought it unlikely that individual cuts would ever become part of the export trade to Britain, It was certain that the processing would boost the cost appreciably. Emphasis bn an attractive-looking product is not confied entirely to America however. The British market will benefit largely from- a £lO,OOO addition to the Wairoa wdrks ’fit’ the form of a quick-freeze chamber for fancy meats. This new method will eliminate freezer burn, a discoloration which occurs unavoidably in the present system. Refrigeration engineers are now installing English equipment specially designed in the new chambers* Work has been in progress since last October.