NEW FACTORY PROCESS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 18 February 1926, Page 7

NEW FACTORY PROCESS.

RECOVERY OF AIJLLK SOLIDS

GREAT DAIRYING' ADYANOE.

SPECIAL TREATMENT OF WASTE'.

Further details concerning the process invented by Air. H. N. AleLeod, of Frankton, for substantially increasing the value of dairy produce by extracting from 10 to 13 per cent, more solids, from the milk than can be done by ordinary methods, reveal how important the inevntion is. .says the Hamilton correspondent of the Auckland Herald. The process saves valuable solids in whey and butter-milk which have previously been regarded as waste matter, and converts these *olids into additional food by cheaply and effectively incorporating them with full-cream milk cheese, which, by the addition, is also increased in nutritive value and is exceedingly pleasant to the palate. Wheie it has been placed on the market the new cheese has become highly popular. It is stated to be a scientific fact thatthe quantity of solids left in skim milk and butter-milk is three times, greater than the quantity of butter-fat taken out. To convert these waste solid.* into additional cheese has been Mr. McLeod's object, and he has had consida.ble success. It is estimated that if the system is fully developed in New Zealand a gain of £6,000,G(X) annually will be given to. the dairy industry. . Outline of the Process. The plant consists of a. pump and a urecipitor, so called because it> brings about the precipitation of the fine curd. The butter-milk or whey is pumped from the churn or vat into the precipitor and steam, registering up to 320 degrees, is applied at high pressure. The liquid i.s then regenerativelv cooled and paused through an extractor. Solids in the form of very fine curds are retained, and are incorporated in the next day’s make of cheese. The solids from butter-milk have a bright white appearance, and are like white of egg, while the solids from whey are pink in colour. Some idea of the value ol the process may be gleaned from the fact t-liaV of 12.70' per. cent of solid* in whole milk, 9.40 per cent, is retained in the butter-milk. Butter is represented bv about 3.30 per cent. 'Hie proportion of butter to the butter-milk is as 40 is to 60. By applying the McLeod process lialf-a-pound of solids can be obtained from a gallon of butter-milk. AITr. McLeod’s invention was the result of investigations made in Southland with a view to finding some mean* of doing away with the pollution caused in streams by whey. An Authoritative Report.

Reporting on the process, Air. H..AA. Lawrence, F. 1.0.. F. 0.5., who was 18 veaiK with the Royal Agricultural Society, England, give* the following interesting information : —“The whey obtained as a by-product of cheese-making and subsequent separation to remove the remaining butter-fat, contains a considerable quantity of solids, amounting to approximately half the quantity originally in the milk. Whole milk contain* an average of 12.5 per cent, total solids, which consists of milk Ist, casein, lactalbumin, milk sugar and mineral matter, in the process of making cheese most of the fat- and casein are removed, while the *mall quantity of fat remaining in the whey is almost entirely removed by the separation in a. milk separator. The whey thus obtained still contains some 6.6 per cent, total solids comprising milk sugar, eaeein, lactalbumin, some of the mineral matter and a very small quantity of fat. Jn other words the protein remaining in a typical whey amounts to, roughly, between one sixth and one-seventh of the total solids removed from cheese, or, if an average milk contains 3.4 per hundred of total protein, 2.6 parts, or roughly three-quarters of the total, are removed in the curd from cheese, while 0.8 parts, or roughly one-quarter of the total remains in the whey. The object of the AleLeod patent whev apparatus i.s to etrac-fc further solids from the whey by precipitation. As a factory process it is simple and economical.” D’ealing with the technical aspects, Air. Lawrence further state*.: “The results prove that the process extracted 0.55 per cent of the protein, which together with the sugar, ash and fat precipitated with it, would amount to 0.7 per cent., which is equal to more than 10 per cent, of the cheese *olids extracted from a typical milk.”