FULL CREAM CHEESE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 39, 14 August 1930, Page 12

FULL CREAM CHEESE

BRITISH DEMANDS

STANDARDISED ARTICLE

"Evening Post," 14th August.

Was the institution ,of standardised cheese a wise business move? Time is beginning to raise doubts on the question. Legally, a factory licensed to make standardised cheese may not export cheese with less than 50 per cent, of milk fat from -Ist August to 28th or 29th Februarys and not less than 52 per cent, of milk fat from Ist March to 31st July. On the ether hand, a factory making full cream cheese may turn but:one article with lees than these minimum fat contents. There are divided -opinions in' New Zealand of standardisation1.: South makers appear to prefer making'the full cream Article, while in; the north the prevailing view appears to' Be that if the legal percentage of fat content is in"the; cheese; no more can be . expected, inasmuch as' a full-cream cheese may contain less than 50 per cent. ' of "fat. Withtrich milk for cheese manufacture yielding well1 over 50 per cent, of fat, it would; appear : to be a. matter of sound business to turn the Surplus percentage of fat" mtoi profit,.'..making, of course, a sufficient allowance on the right lide for error,; • ■':'- From the manufacturer's point of view it;would seem that if .thefat content of his cheese complies with: the law, and is equal in 'all other respects to full cream cheese, his customer, should have no cause for complaint. ; • But in times like the present, when markets axe low and supplies .in abundance, the usually exercises his right 'to; have the last word, and is doing so now with respect, to standardised cheese. That trustworthy and staid'trade journal, the London "Grocer," questions whether •tfie quality of Itfew.Zealand cheese during recent years has been equal standard which came in the earlier, days _of the industry.-.Views as to the deterioration ~ are so widely held that it can be considered that the article, as such, is not giving satisfaction, thouglrno doubt, when this fact is made known to the turers, in New Zealand they'.will'seek immediately to remedy the shortcomings. "Apart from the general- criticism of looseness of texture and lack, of flavour, there is a growing resentment at the type known as 'standardised' cheese. When this 'standardised' cheese was, ■ introduced to the market, traders generally were inclined: to try it before criticising it, despite the fact that they viewed it with a certain amount of suspicion. On making inquiries as to the meaning of the term 'standardised' cheese, they were not altogether surprised to know that the cheese was, in fact, made from skimmed milk, und on that account could not be describjed' as 'full cream' cheese. FAILS TO FIND FAVOUR. "Skimmed cheese is no novelty in the tradft," remarks the "Grocer," "and, indeed, used to-come in large quantities from the United States of America many years ago,' but it would scarcely be fair to compare the New Zealand cheese with the type of cheese generally k&own in the trade as 'skimmed cheese. So long, however, as the cheese is not 'full cream' there is an undoubted pre; jiidice. against it, and as _ time goes on ■ this prejudice will surely increase rather than diminish. Those who have handled the 'standardised' assert that* apart altogether from prejudice, the article" does 'not: meet with favour, and on account of the: large proportion of New Zealand Cheese now coming forward 'under the ♦standardised' heading, the prejudice is f teuch as to affect the whole, of the New Zealand cheese as an article of food. CANADIAN IS FULL CREAM. /'Traders assert that the inferior quality has already reflected itself in the market price to be./ Obtained, when compared with the price. of its competitor, Canadian full cream cheese."... .It is not too much, to say that the trade in England would welcome the abandonment of 'standardised' cheese and a return to no- . thing but the 'full cream' variety." "The Post's." London correspondent rejporfcs in « similar vein, after interviewing several readers in .the provision trade. WISCONSIN'S EXPERIENCE. "Marschall's Dairy Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin, in a history of cheese making In that State, showed'how in the early 'seventies Wisconsin came to the front, and steadily improved its make until ins 1891 its out-turn was 54 million pounds. "Then began to be felt the effects of an «vil that had slowly fastened itself on the industry, and now threatened its, life. "In their eagerness for gain, some of the factorym'en had begun to skim the milk before making it into cheese/ thus reducing the amount of butter-fat in the finished product. -This was done' at.first in: the belief that the difference would not be noticed,in;foreign markets. From tiuch a practice it was only a step fur-. ther to the substitution of animal fat Jor the butterrfat that had been taken "Quality Buffered and demand began to fall oft. In two years the production of cheese-in Wisconsin dropped nine million Eounds, and by 1895 the yearly output ad shrunk to 36 million pounds—less than two-thirds of what it was.four years before. ;'. '■■■■ - ■■- " :- . '■ ■ "Drastic measures were necessary, and the Legislature of 1895 was inducedto pass 6 law prohibiting the manufacture of 'filled* cheese, and- requiring all skimmed milk , cheese to be made in a special shape, so that it < might be easily identified. The industry took a new lease of life, but the great foreign trade which had been built up had been lost to Canada, never to be regained." I ' . • Standardised dheese as made m New Zealand is not dheese made of skim milk, but of milk from which some cream lias been skimmed. Db is not difficult, however, to conceive "that if the ultimate consumer buys cheese made from partially skimmed Milk he may imagine that it is made from Bkim milk; at any rate it is not the product of full cream or unskimmed milk, Although it may actually contain as much tis or v more milk fat than a full cream pheese.v ' "