UNEVEN QUALITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 38, 13 August 1941, Page 8

UNEVEN QUALITY

SEASONAL TROUBLE

MINISTER'S REPLY

"At the present J;ime it is undoubtedly true that the quality of butter being placed onths local market is more uneven than during the remainder of the year. The statement, however that much of it is not fit to give a dog is an absurd exaggeration of the position," declared the Minister of Agriculture ■ (Mr. Barclay), commenting on the criticism of the quality of butter now being retailed. The Minister said that the real facts of the situation were that all butter placed on the Wellington market was graded. > Grade notes were available in respect of butter passing through the patting plant at the Internal Marketing Division. No butter which graded below first grade was allowed on the market, and it was therefore quite untrue to state that inferior butters were being marketed as first or finest. It should also be stated that it was not until the Government undertook the supervision of the local market that all butter was compulsorily graded, and in the past considerable quantities of ungraded butter found j their way to retail stores. AN INDUSTRY PROBLEM. "It must be realised," the Minister continued, "that at the present time of the year there ,is not a sufficient quantity of first-grade freshly made butter available to supply the local market; the balance has to be made up from withdrawals from export freezer stock. It has been found over a period of years that certain quantities of butter withdrawn from the freezer at this time of the season and 'graded as first or finest grade reveal a tendency to deteriorate slightly after patting. "This tendency is by no means peculiar to this year, but is a problem which has faced our agricultural scientists for a considerable time, and they are making every effort to overcome this difficulty. What I must emphasise, however, is the fact that this tendency is quite beyond the control of he Internal Marketing Division, and was an industry problem long before the Department assumed the responsibility of patting butter for the Wellington market. BUTTER BRANDS. "It is also correct that at times butter patted for the Wellington market under the brand of a particular factory is not actually the butter of that company, but the decision in this respect lies entirely with the dairy factory concerned; if they have not enough freshly-made butter during the off season to maintain their brand on the local market, they have the alternative of either withdrawing thenbrand when freshly-made supplies are not available, or of agreeing to a substitution from frozen stocks. No suet) substitution is made by the Internal Marketing Division, except on the in- ; Structions and with the permission of the company concerned, and then only j

the highest grade butter available is utilised. "In short, the position is that the local market in New Zealand is supplied during the present months with the maximum quantity of the best freshly-made butter available, supplemented by the best butter available from export stocks. "Any variation in the quality of butter now being placed on the local market is strictly of a limited and temporary nature and in the main the local market in New Zealand is supplied with the best-quality butter produced by the industry, and every care is taken by the Internal Marketing Division to ensure that all factors within their control are carefully watched to maintain the highest possible standard."