VITAMINES IN BUTTER.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 April 1925, Page 7

VITAMINES IN BUTTER.

NEW ZEALAND’S ADVANTAGE. A CHANCE FOB PUBLICITY. A suggestion that should assist in giving New Zealand butter its rightful place on the London market by demonstrating its superiority over its rivals, and particularly over butter from stallfed animals, is contained in a letter from Mr. H. Y. Coverdale, formerly of Auckland, and now of S. Thomas’ Hospital, London. Mr. Coverdale remarks that there is continued reference to pure food in the English papers, mostly in reference to preservatives and their possible dangers and to vatamines, and suggests that some publicity on these lines by the New Zealand dairying interests would be of considerable value. He mentions that the supposed superiority of Danish butter is a bubble that badly needs pricking. . While most foods have been dealt with, butter lias not yet been the subject ut public discussion. and he sees no reason why New Zealand should not take the. initiative and point out the superiority of her product, taking such points as purity, vitainine value, fat and food value, and flavour, the English puiblie being sufficiently informed to appreciate such arguments. “Dairy produce in England is produced with a total disregard for cleanliness.” states Mr. Coverdale, “and except that the Ministry of Health would soon track down contamination from a typhoid carrier, there is no supervision or control. Many farmers do not even wash their milk eaiis. It is, l believe, a fact that New Zealand is the only country exporting in quantity to England where dairy cows are led all the year round on grass. This is a point of great importance, and much could he made of it, for grass is the source of vitamines. it is now known, by a few scientists only, that in winter the milk and butter from stall-fed cows contain very little vitami.no,.and fats fed oil them quickly develop rickets. Some medical officers of health have even advocated the use for children of dried imported milk from countries where cows are not stall-fed. As regards fat and food value analysts have shown that New Zealand blitter is superior to other brands^” Mr. Coverdale’s idea .is that New Zealand should secure the services of a competent biochemist, preferably at Cambridge, the home of biochemistry, to make the necessary comparative analysis and state a ease. 'I lie publicity expert could then lie called in to make the facts clear to the public,