QUALITY FIRST, NOT QUANTITY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 187, 7 May 1934, Page 4

QUALITY FIRST, NOT QUANTITY

Dominion’s Exporting Future PROBLEM OF OVERCOMING MOULD FUNGI Dominion Special Service. Auckland, . May 6. The fact that the exporting . future of New Zealand will be governed by quality and not by the quantity of her products, the increasing importance of chilled shipments, and the discovery that moulds are, apart from putrefactive bacteria, the chief destructive factor in all stored foodstuffs, were discussed by Mr. J. C. Neill, field mycologist at the. plant research station at Palmerston North prior to joining the Trojan Star on his way to England and the Continent, where he will make special inquiries into the conditions in which New Zealand products arrive. “We have been fortunate in finding methods for the control of diseases which have been of economic importance all over the world.” said Mr. Neill, "and, in. addition, for the past three years we have been studying mould fungi which have caused deterioration in chilled beef, cheese, butter, bacon, and other stored food products. Mould grows very slowly on the passage to England, but when the meat is taken out at the other end it appears with great rapidity., It is not actually poisonous, but it spoils the appearance of meat and affects the price. It is the same with other chilled products. "My trip Home is to inquire how deterioration can be prevented, and I will have an opportunity of consulting Home experts so as to be able to advise in New Zealand how it can be prevented.” said Mr. Neill. “It is at the New Zealand end that the damage starts. Chilled products are stored in an atmosphere which contains 10 to 12 per cent, of carbon dioxide gas- That method may help, but it can never be so effective as precautionary and sanitary methods up to the time the meat is loaded in New Zealand.”