EMPIRE BUTTER

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11826, 6 January 1933, Page 5

EMPIRE BUTTER

VITAMIN VALUES

SCIENTIFIC VERDICT FOR NEW ZEALAND

(By a Special correspondent.) LONDON, Nov. 24

Once again scientists have brought their knowledge into the realm of everyday things. They have recently experimented' with a- commodity necessary to . every household, and have found that the vitamin value of Australian and New Zealand butters is as great as that of the best homegrown summer butter. The details and' results of tJiV scientific investigation (mad<? possibly through tire aid of the EmpiroTMarliftting Board), are availabler..ini .jyfepoft issued by the Medical Rc'Seiirch Council on. the Vitamin Cbntcnk of Australian, New Zealand, and English Butters (If .NT. Stationery Office, Is net). The findings in this report should do much to increase the sale of New. Zealand butter in the United Kingdom. The prominence given to-day io food values and the vitamin contents of foodstuffs coupled with the fact that Britain mest obtain some of her -supplies, from overseas emphasises the importance of knowing that those which come from far-distant Dominions can he accepted alongside the best that can be'produced at home. This especially affects butter which possesses the two lat-soluble vitamins A and D. Vitamin A is essential to growth and helps resistance to disease, whilst bitamin D (the ricketspreventing factor) is accessary for the formation of strong bone and good teeth. The presence- of these accessory food factors in butter makes it a most valuable food for children and gives it a place among the preventive medicine’s, for it forms a regular item in the normal person’s diet. The tasted butters have been subjected to a rigid examination, beginning with a study of the cows supplying the cream, of the conditions under which they have been living, ol the treatment of the cream and details of every process involved from the time when the butter left the farms in the Dominion until its arrival in England. To estimate the vitamin content tests were made with rat s whose previous family record was available. Two' groups were used, the members of one being fed on an ordinary diet, the others receiving food front which vitamin A had been excluded. The rats on the restricted diet lost their glossy coats, tluir energy and their weight declined, some even developed disease. Their impoverished condition .wa's arrested by only (loses of butter, and the ailing animals began to put on weight and tc> recover their spirits. Experiments were also carried out which demonstrated the presence of vitamin D and its necessity to the healthy life o! the rats.

COLD STORAGE NO DETRIMENT

The vitamins in the butter were also found to have remarkable stability during cold storage. The value of the vitamin oentent wa's tested soon after the butters arrived in England. Ihe results were considered together with information given about the state of the when they were first graded and packed, and no appreciable difference in the vitamin potency of the samples wa s found to exist. The same butters were tested after they had been in cold storage for at least two years, and even alter that length of time the general conclusion was justified that no notable depreciation uf food value had taken place. Those experiments, so satisfactory in their results, demonstrated clearly that ikt Dominion butters suffer no ill effects during tin 1 two or three months which customarily elapse notwvn the time of their production and of tluor consumption.

The butters subjected to this rigid scrutiny were prepared from mixed breed? and .Tei'sey cows, .which had been on open pasture throughout the year.- The racial origin of the cows appeared to be without significant effect on tho vitamin content. VAI.PE FOP GROWING CHI LDREN This scientific investigation of the ikiod value of certain, butters and its eminently satisfactory results i's of great assistance i<> the housewife. Anxious Jor the well-being of those in. her care, especially eager that the children should be strong-limbed and healthy, that they should be freed from the ills attendant on dental decay, she will take particular care ( that her supplies of butter—an item ever on her shopping-list, should he those for which positive proof has been adduced ay to its richness in the very substances which will, aid her in her health campaign. the WINTER MARKET IN BRITAIN A perusal of the report of the JMcdical .Research Council leaves no doubt of the thoroughness with which the Australian and New Zealand butters have been examined. They have been provided by herds having the benefit of. long hours of sunshine in the Southern Hemisphere. It is known that the vitamin content of milk and butter produced in northern countries during the winter months suffers considerably from insufficient sunlight, and from the necessity of stall-feeding for the cows. The importance, therefore, of being able Ro procure through tip, .winter butter which, is a s rick in' food value as the best English summer butter and as that prepared from the cream of cows fed with food especially rich, in fat soluble vitamins, is very great. The Empire Marketing Board has made it possible for scientists to demonstrate that the Dominion butters have a high and uniform vitamin, potency which persists despite differences in methods of production and difficulties of transport. This news, is particularly welcome to the British people for it enables them to obtain excellent Empire butter in winter as well as In summer.