TAINTED BUTTER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20632, 13 August 1941, Page 8

TAINTED BUTTER

PUBLIC COMPLAINTS SOLD AS FIRST GRADE PACKING BY STATE (Per Presß Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. "The public to-day is paying for first grade butter, but. not getting it." This statement was made yesterday by a Wellington retail grocer and confirmed by Mr. W. Heggie. of Dominion Distributors, Limited. “I have complaints every :day about tainted butter,” said one grocer. “'Before the Government look control of marketing, each factory packed its own butter and took the responsibility for it. If the quality was not satisfactory the retailer knew where to cornplain, and if the fault was not rectified he could buy from another source. “To-day all butter for the Wellington market is packed by the Internal Marketing Division, all of it ostensibly of finest quality and charged for accordingly." Though the butter bore the wraps of various factories, he suspected that this was not a correct indication of its origin. He drew attention to a wrap bearing the name of a well-known dairy company followed by the words: “Packed for the proprietors of the brand from pure creamery butter by the Internal Marketing Division, Wellington.” Answer by Officials It was not stated expressly, he pointed out, that the butter was the product of the company mentioned. The butter received from the Jnternal Marketing Division was not good enough, said Mr. Heggie. When a complaint was made to Government officials they said that the butter was graded finest quality and the taint developed later. He understood that the Agriculture Department was investigating this aspect, of the problem. It was possible that the trouble might be caused by a taint in the storage chambers, or by too great a use of fertiliser in the soil. Whatever the cause, however, the division, though it knew the butter was not right, continued to send it out without making any explanatory statement to the public, Mr. Heggie said. His view was that the butter should be packed by the individual factories as before:the Government took control. That would ensure competition for quality and would tend to keep the standard up. To-day the division probably tried to place in the factory’s wrap butter of appropriate quality, but that was not the same. “We did get bad butter in the past, but it was sold as inferior .grade,” said Mr. Heggie. “To-day I would say it is ,all mediocre and it is sold as finest.” After a meeting, the Wellington Master Grocers’ Association issued the following official statement last night: “All members at the meeting were concerned about the quality of the butter they are receiving. A number of cases in which butter had had to be returned because of its inferior quality were quoted. The association intends to write to the Minister of Marketing .asking him to investigate the position.”