N.Z. Dairy Firms To Make Lactalbumen For America

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28271, 8 May 1957, Page 5

N.Z. Dairy Firms To Make Lactalbumen For America

(New Zealand Press Association)

PALMERSTON NTH., May 7. Arrangements have now been completed for the manufacture by certain dairy interests in New Zealand under contract to a United States firm of a new dairy product known as lactalbumen. Three co-operative dairy companies in the Manawatu and two in Taranaki have formed a new company with a capital of approximately £30,000 to fulfil a proportion of the contract, but it is understood that the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company in the Waikato, which conducted trials with a pilot plant last season, will provide most of the American company’s needs. The total manufacture in New Zealand is believed to be only 500 tons a year, with the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company providing 300 tons, and the Manawatu and Taranaki companies 150 tons. Although the new product comes from casein whey, it should not be confused with the new dairy product announced by the New Zealand Dairy Products Marketing Commission last month as having been made in New Zealand this season. This product is a process whey powder, the first shipment of which arrived in the United Kingdom in March. Information regarding the purposes for which the new product of lactalbumen will be used as difficult to obtain, but it is known that the article is to be made under contract for Borden’s. Ltd..

a dairy products firm in the United States. It has been stated chat lactalbumen is so insoluble that no means have been discovered in New Zealand of dissolving it. The initial contract made with the New Zealand concerns is understood to have been signed at £2OO a ton for lactalbumer made only from casein whey, so that suppliers to casein factories will be the greatest beneficiaries in the first instance. However, there is reason to believe. that the product could also be made from cheese whey and that this procedure might be fol lowed if the initial contracts are satisfactorily filled. Lactalbumen, a comparatively new product made from casein or cheese whey, is a semi-pharma-ceutical food which is almost pure protein.

HOPES FOR NEW PRODUCT

Possible Expansion Of Production (New Zealand Press Association / AUCKLAND. May 7. The Dairy Products Marketin? Commission hoped the production and export of lactalbumen would be expanded, but to what extent this would be possible he did not know, said the chairman of the commission. Mr W. Marshall, in Auckland today. Mr Marshall made this comment just before he boarded an aircraft on the first leg of his journey to the United States. Canada and Britain. This will be his last overseas visit on commission business—he retires on July 31—and he described it as a routine trip. In the United States, Mr Marshall will complete final details of a contract under which New Zealand is to supply an American company with up to 500 tons of lactalbumen a year for three years. This is the company’s initial requirement. but it is possible that the contract may be extended. Mr Marshall, who was accompanied by his assistant, Mr S. T Murphy, said he would remain in London on commission business until the date of his retirement, and after that he would be staying in Britain for a period as a free agent. He would not be taking any part in the talks of the New Zealand trade mission, but he hoped the chairman of the Meal Board (Mr J. D. Ormond) and the chairman of the Apple and Pear Marketing Board (Mr J. H Parker) would still be in London when he arrived so that he could discuss shipping and other matters with them.