Soft butter not new

Press, 21 August 1979, Page 20

Soft butter not new

PA Wellington A “discovery” about butter, which excited the British High Commission recently, is nothing new. An article published in the commission’s “British News Review” told how a Scots farmer had discovered that he could spread butter straight from the cow. The farmer fed his cows a mixture containing waste cooking fat, and discovered that butter he made from their milk was

spreadable straight from the refrigerator. However, a butter made from the milk of dietcontrolled cattle was testmarketed in New Zealand four years ago. The idea originated tn Australia, and commercial rights to it were obtained by Dalgety New Zealand, Ltd. Alta Lipids, a subsidiary of Dalgety’s, marketed the butter in New Zealand, but the cost of specialised feeding made the butter uneconomical and it was withdrawn from the market.

A spokesman for Alta Lipids said that the project had not been dropped completely. Butter, cheese, and meat from diet-con-trolled cattle was still sold to Britain. “Their usual dairy products are more expensive than ours, so the difference in cost between the special products and the usual variety is not so marked,” he saidThe “soft butter” was marketed in Auckland for two months in 1975.