Milk Board irks store

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 6

Milk Board irks store

If the Milk Board is really interested in promoting the sale of milk it should pull up its stocks and do something about it, according to the manager of a Christchurch supermarket. Mr J. Turner, manager of the Fendalton New World Supermarket, has been selling milk in his store for more than three years. As far as he knows, his supermarket is the only one in Christchurch to sell milk. He said that until last September the milk vendor in his area had delivered milk to the supermarket either in the morning or during working hours so that it could be refrigerated before it deteriorated. But a new vendor, after the usual delivery time had been changed to twilight hours last September, had

steadfastly refused to help the supermaket in this way. The vendor delivered the milk about 6 p.m. and a supermarket staff member had to return to work to store it.

“This vendor is running his business according to regulations but the regulations are anachronistic,” said Mr Turner.

The regulations for the sale of milk had been set when deliveries had been made only in the mornings. They allowed milk to be delivered to a sealed container, placed out of the sunlight, but did not specify that the temperature of the container be controlled.

“It is possible for a milk vendor to leave the milk at night in a sealed container outside a business and it will stay there all night

unless it is picked up and refrigerated,” said Mr Turner. “It could stay outside for 13 hours with consequent loss of quality, if not spoilage.” Last September 1 the Chief Health Inspector for the Waimairi County Council (Mr G. F, Manton) had written to the district manager of the Milk Board (Mr M. F. W. Langford) asking if steps could be taken “to require reasonable delivery hours by milk vendors” to make sure that milk was in good condition when it reached customers. Mr Langford replied that it was not possible to change delivery times to accommodate the supermarket. The erection of “a suitable receptacle” seemed to be the best answer to the problem.

The Health Department had then been approached. It had advised that the Milk Board had the power to do something, but nothing was done. “It is hardly worth all the hassle,” said Mr Turner, “when you consider the bulk of stuff which comes into the supermarket and we sell only about half a dozen crates of milk a week.

“It is really a service to the customers. We want to promote good New Zealand food and it seems ironic to us that a firm which does want to do this is faced with a dead bat,” he said. “The time is long gone when suppliers and distributors could get away with this sort of silly nonsense. It has no place in modem marketing.”