PLACE SEEN FOR DRIED MILK

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29916, 1 September 1962, Page 7

PLACE SEEN FOR DRIED MILK

'THE view that it would be *■ more economical under New Zealand conditions to reconstitute dried milk for city and town milk supply in a.t least the winter months when costs of milk producion on farms were high was expressed by Mr M G Hollard, sender lecturer in the animal husbandry department at Lincoln College, at the agriculture section of the Science Congress. He said that the reconstituted product wculd be as high in quality as normal liquid milk, and might even be superior. After saying that the basic husbandry involved in the production of milk from dairy cows on an all-the-year round basis was inefficient and costly under New Zealand conditions and that in 1960-61 subsidies amounting to £4 35m had to be paid to support the industry. Mr Hollard said that there was now an alternative available in the form of milk reconstituted from dried milk solids Succesful “Reconstitution of milk in bulk for bottling and resale is proving successful in many parts of the world." he said “Whole milk powder can be used successfully for reconstituted milk if it is fresh, but where it is stored for any period, especially at high temperatures, there are I dangers of producing a poor quality reconstituted product owing to deterioration of the whole milk powder during I "storage Skim milk powder has much more satisfactory I keeping qualities and so is more suitable for general I use . . . I "As the source of butterfat I tn reconstituted milk, unsalted butter seems very satisfactory. If it is melted I at a low temperature and then homogenised with re- | constituted skim milk a good quality reconstituted whole milk can be produced. Alternatively dry butter-fat produced from cream or butter I can be melted and homogenised with reconstituted skim milk to produce a very I acceptable product. This is I the combination used now in commercial operations, especially in Japan, the PhilipI pines and India. Future “The future of the town milk industry could well be associated with the fortification of whole milk with added skim milk powder to maintain a uniform product of specified food value Reconstituted milk could replace in part, or even in full, the liquid milk industry as we know it today It may seem unrealistic in a dairying country to reconstitute all liquid milk for city supply, but technologically it is possible and economically it would be sound ” Elaborating on this theme at the request of his audience, Mr Hollard said that workers at Reading had shown that the nutritive value of milk was not affected in the drying process There would be less loss of

nutritive value in drying than where bottles of milk were left out in the sun in the morning for an hour. A good product could be produced by the milk treatment stations throughout the country, he said

Stating that subsidy payments at £ 4.35 m seemed a high cost to maintain a liquid milk industry all the year round, Mr Hollard said it would be possible to reconstitute to give a product with a 4.1 per cent, butterfat content and a 8.8 per cent, solids-not-fat for 25.3 d a gallon compared with 34.178 d for town milk at the factory door in New Zealand last year. The saving in using reconstituted milk last year would have been 8.878 d a gallon or about half of the 16.78 d a gallon which was paid in subsidy last year. It seemed to him that the dairy industry in the future would depend more on dried milk in its export markets. "As a selling point' for dried milk what could be better than being able to say that we drink it ourselves.” he said. The chairman of the session, Mr F. R. Callaghan, a former secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and now

scientific adviser to the Wool Board, asked whether reconstituted milk would be used only in the period of high cost production on farms or all the time. Mr Holland said that the main difficulty in a country with a high living standard would be to obtain public acceptance of the idea. Opposition would, however, be largely psychological as there was no sound argument against it on nutritive or economic grounds. Liquid milk supplies could be supplemented in periods of high cost production—these costs couid be extraordinarily high with an additional 4d a gallon being paid in the South Island and as well another 4d in Oamaru and Southland and from 2d to 4d in several North Island districts. A good case could be made for using reconstituted milk then, and having gone so far it would seem sensible to go the whole way and rely on it completely A reconstituted milk product could be reconstituted to meet any specifications of chemical composition *that were needed. In the light of what was heard about the possible harmful effects of animal fat on human beings, it was not inconceivable that through reconstitution a more suitable food could be produced than cow’s milk.