REASON FOR CHANGE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29330, 8 October 1960, Page 7

REASON FOR CHANGE

“Raid On Fat”

A spokesman for a local freezing company said last evening that the Meat Board had last year cut out the Down B’s (371 b to 421 b) and 4’s (431 b to 501 b) grades and exporters were now making only a Down grade up to 361 b. Information reaching New Zealand had shown that the Down grade was synonymous with fat and it could well have been for it had not been earning a premium over the years. It had been the raid on fat that had influenced the board in its decision to eliminate the two heavier Down grades and he understood

that at the time the decision was taken there had also been advocates for eliminating the Down grade altogether. He understood

that the instruction was nbw to exclude wasteful carcases from the Downs up to 361 b in an endeavour to make this grade the acme of quality,'"but he did not think that this grade was earning any premium. If British butchers had wanted so much the grades that they were now complaining had been eliminated, why had they not been prepared to. pay for them? he asked. It was hard to follow when on the one hand they complained of fat and on the other the elimination of these grades.