MEAT MARKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 137, 7 December 1944, Page 4

MEAT MARKS

CONFERENCE PROPOSED

SHIPPING OUTLOOK

(From a Special Correspondent.) LONDON, October 13. A suggestion let fall the other day in Liverpool trade circles has a peculiar interest for many people on the other side of the world. This was that the present period should prove a suitable one for a conference to simplify grades and marks in the overseas meat industry. Five years of Government control has almost sufficed to dull the memory of the many hindrances caused in the frozen meat trade by the lack of uniformity of meat marketing. But it does not take long to recall how a series of anomalies both jn the inspection marking, ?rade marks, labelling, and handling contributed to much loss of time and placed, in some measure, a brake on traffic which could ill afford delays. At any ordinary period reform in this direction could only be attempted in a very piecemeal fashion and then only by multiple meetings of tne various interests. A SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY.

It certainly does seem that the present era of Government. trading affords a special opportunity for producers' and shippers' representatives to get together in conjunction with importers^ experts, with a fair hope of arriving at some mutually-agreeable conclusions. Modifications of old practice agreed upon could be put into effect at a period and in stages according to settlement in the era ahead. Such a get-together should not fail to produce some good results, and any effort along these lines should prove of direct assistance to the Empire meat trade. Dominion meat export interests at least have their representative association in London to focus such a question on their behalf.

The fact that shipping companies in viewing their post-war prospects have a clear view of the balance between war credits and the difficulties of new building has been indicated this month by the chairman of Messrs. Furness, Withy, and Company, Limited, at the 53rd annual meeting of their company. Mr. E. A. Murrant said that while the company and it" subsidiaries had a credit of £1,146,280 in the Government tonnage replacement account, that was only collectable if and when new ships were acquired, within a specified period of seven years: He mentioned the indication given by the Ministry of War Transport that licences for special types of ships might shortly be more readily obtainable. In any case, a long period must elapse before such vessels would be ready for service, a period within which they would need to protect their services with such tonnage as they might have available. HUGE AMERICAN STORE. What must surely be conceded top capacity among the world's cold stor- ! age units is a huge store of between | I seven and eight million cubic feet ; capacity lately constructed in the j spaces of a 75-year-old limestone mine near Atchison, Kansas, U.S.A. The American War Food Administration has been responsible for the creation of this new giant perishable food! larder in view of the looming neces- I sities of the great campaign to defeat post-war starvation in Europe and elsewhere.

This adaption of mine space to cold storage duty, although nox novel, has never been practised on such a large scale. In England since the war began an extensive system of caves in the south-west has been insulated, air conditioned, and refrigerated for the scientific storage of large quantities of pictures and other valuable works of art. It is said that to supply buildings to provide the seven or eight million cubic feet of cooled space now equipped at the Kansas mine would cost approximately fifteen million dollars, to say nothing of the wartime drain on huge quantities of essential | building materials required. The Kan--1 sas project will cost about a tenth of this amount. FOOD STORAGE FOR THE HOME. A leading refrigerator manufacturer in this country has devised a new method of food storage for the home.' With the aim of selling refrigeration to the million post-war, this company has developed,what they have chosen to term "Larder Conditioning," whereby new or existing larders or pantries will be lightly insulated with slag wool, kapok, or its equivalent, and a small mechanical refrigeration set will be placed therein to cool the interior to below 50 degrees Fahr. The object is to provide cooling facilities for the lower income group at a price be- i low that of the pre-war three cubic j feet refrigerator of the cabinet type. This new system frees the planning i of kitchens in small houses and tenement flats, as it becomes no longer necessary to position the larder on an ] outside wall to obtain light and permanent ventilation. A more satisfactory arrangement of sink, boiler, cooker, etc., it is claimed, can, therefore, be obtained. The difficulty frequently experienced in the orientation of kitchens to obtain a northerly aspect for the larder is also overcome with consequential greater freedom in site lay-outs.