New milk products

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32798, 24 December 1971, Page 3

New milk products

(N.Z. Press Association) \ WELLINGTON, Dec. 23. The Dairy Board expected during the present production season to export at least a dozen new classes of dairy products, most of which had been under development over a period of years, the chairman of the board (Mr F. L. Onion) said today. “While the future of each product cannot be foreseen, it will be surprising if some of them do not become substantial income earners for New Zealand,” he said. Among the new products which have been, or will be, manufactured this-season are gouda and Cheshire cheese, flake skim-milk cheese, new types of ghee, instant wholemilk powder, half-cream milk powder, new types of baby foods, therapeutic foods based on casein, and soluble whey protein. Some are being manufactured to the requirements of individual buyers, and others will be available for sale to any buyer. Gouda and flake skim-milk cheese are being sold mostly in Japan, Cheshire cheese chiefly in the United States, the therapeutic foods mainly in New Zealand, Australia; Asia and the United Kingdom, the half-cream milk powder principally in South America, and the baby foods

and instant whole-milk powder in 20 or more countries. Many other new products are in development. Some like several of those being launched this season, required specialised production processes and heavy investment in capital equipment, Mr Onion said. As recently as the 1950 s the industry’s range was confined to butter, cheddar cheese, skim-milk powder, buttermilk powder, and casein. Today the dairy companies

produce 40 basic products from milk. These include various types of butter, milkfat and ghee, varieties of cheese, natural and processed, milk powders containing different proportions Of milkfat and non-fat solids, and infant milk foods. They included also protein products such as various types of casein, casinates, protein co-precipitates and lactalbumin, as well as products containing non-dairy additives for the pharmaceutical, baking, confectionery, stockfeed and other trades, he said. Mr Onion said the highprotein pharmaceutical products and food additives were examples of the movement towards more sophisticated processing' within the dairy industry. In a number of cases this was being done in close association with wellkndwn international trading firms, and the products were marketed by the buyers under their proprietary brands.