FROZEN FOOD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 50, 27 August 1924, Page 5

FROZEN FOOD

TRAINING OF SEA ENGINEERS

ROAD TRANSPORT.

(FROM OUR OWN -CORRBSPOJ!DENI.) , ■' \ - LONDON-, 19th'June. .-. Some fifty papers are being read each dajr at the International Congress ''of Refrigeration. There are seven sections and each of these is dealing with a specialised branch of the general subject. ■ The increased use which is being made of motor transport,for the distribution of frozen produce was revealed in a .contribution by Mr. E. F. Farrow. There were at the present S!me, he stated, a considerable nulnber of wholesale depots in various parts of the . country which had been established by the large meat importing firms for the delivery of nieat in relatively large consignments. direct from the port of shipment. Regular services were now in operation from the ports^ of London, 'Liverpool, and Southampton., From London 26 towns, including Birmingham, ■ Portsmouth, Bristol, Brighton, Bournemouth, Northj.ampton, and .Leicester, were served; from Liverpool motor-lorries delivered to Sheffield, Leeds, -Bradford, Manchester, | Nottingham, Preston, and elsewhere; and from Southampton meat was consigned by motor transport to London, Reading, and South Coast towns. It had been found that meat distributors would willingly pay a fractional charge per pound more v for direct transport from ship by road motor.than the railway rate, on account of the difference hi the number of handlings, and it seemed probable that for distance? up to 100 miles from the .port of.^ discharge the bulk of the frozen meat supples imported would in future be transported by road. ' . . ■

It was pointed out in a paper written .by Mr. W. Wright, of the Agricultural Department of New; Zealand, that careful attention to pre-cooling was necessary in connection with the ocean ■transport of New Zealand cheese of the Cheddar type. ■ The application of cold curing to cheese was of quite recent date in New Zealand, but the excellent results obtained in preventing loss of weight and in improving the flavour and condition suggested . that . tfie system would be generally adopted. IMPORT OF FROZEN MEAT. Sir; Henry Rew said that a comparison of the numbers of live stock in Great Britain and Ireland at the present time .with 1880-84. showed an increase of .2,000,000 cattle and a decrease of 4,500,----000 sheep. . During the same period imports of chilled and frozen beef had increased from 36,918 tons to 514,293 tons, mid of frozen mutton and lamb from 15,492 toils to 286,305 tons. The main sources of supply throughout the whole period had been (!he United States, Argentina,". Australia,' and New Zealand. The United States, which 20 years, ago dominated the beef trade, had now practically withdrawn from it, ' while Argentina had risen to a position of supremacy. '.In' 1923 the imports of frozen and chilled meat were 925 134 tons, being about. 80 per cent, of the export _ output of the world's 'i freezing works. Twenty years ago home supplies amounted* to nearly two-thirds of the meat consumption of the United Kingdom ; to-day the proportion was about 53 per cent. -Mr. W. Murray, discussed the advisability of the adoption, of a standard international method of inspection of all frozen produce., As the most important food products .frozen were in the animal category,' efficient inspection could only take place under an organisation of specially trained and skilled officials who had no personal interest in the trade, and he advocated the employment of Government inspectors for inspection before shipment. The second inspection, at the point of distribution, should :be confined to ascertaining that the frozen products were being marketed in good order and condition. -TRAINING SEA-GOING ENGINEERS.

Mr; H. A. Garratt gave an, account of an inquiry- into the facilities available for training sea-going engineers in y the theory and practice of refrigeraj tion Ho stated that very little special work was being done by education authorities in shipping districts, and that shipowners and others engaged in the refrigeration industry 'relied for a sup-, ply of expert engineers on the training ..given by practical experience, at sea. He believed that, a demancL on education authorities for , additional facilities for training refrigerating engineers would receive sympathetic consideration. , Mr. Crawford Heron reminded the congress, although it was.as long since as 1883 that a refrigerating* appliance was first fitted $o, an Aberdeen trawler, this system . had never been adopted by the: fishing industry, the general opinion being that the"-old method of keeping fish in ice was sufficient for all requirements. He questioned the -wisdom of persisting in the use .of this emde system, as it was certain that unless greater care was taken in the handling.and preservation of fish,so that it reached the consumer in better condition.' efforts to popularise fish-eating would fail. ■■