CHEESE QUALITY

Hawera Star, Volume L, 7 August 1930, Page 4

CHEESE QUALITY

SUPPLIERS’ OPINIONS

VIEWS ON STANDARDISATION. The quality oil Dominion cheese Avas referred to at the • annual meeting of the Mangatoki Dairy Company yesterday, AA'lion various opinions were expressed. Air. Astbury referred to standardised cheese, and said his opinion Avas that they should give the manager good inilK and leave it to him to make the very best article.

The manager said that there Avas not too much moisture put in last year’s c-lieese, but some trouble had arisen through employees not folloAvmg their instructions, and these men had iioav gone, in standardising, quite a good cheese could be made, so long as too much skim milk was not added. He said that he Avould very much like to make only the best, but had to lolloav others to some extent, because lie had to think of getting the utmost possible for the suppliers. He added that he hoped the premium pool Avould be formed, because he Avished to make finest ahvays. They could not, lioAvever, for the present afford to lose the extra amount secured by standardisation. In reply to Mr. T. Perry, Avho asked about high testing milk for cheese and Avlietlier better cheese could not be made, from low test milk, the manager said the best test was about 3.5, but it did not mean he could not make good cheese from high testing milk. “But,” he added, “a. jolly good cheese can be made from milk from Avhich 10 to 15 per cent, of cream has been taken.”

All*. Perry said he believed that skimming took aAA'ay buttermilk that should be in the cheese. He considered that the loav testing coavs assisted the others. The Government paid a subsidy for herd testing, but that was apparently not Avliat Avas wanted; a subsidy should be given for loAver test. Mr. Astbury said that actually the extra penny they received brought the low testing milk up to the average value, and Avas the answer to All*. Perry’s questions. All*. R. A. Lane remarked that they might have got more had they made a better article. 4 All*. Willis: This Avas not the experience ©f the Southland factories avlio did not standardise. All*. It. Grace said that the Dairy Division should have taken a firm grip of the situation and alloived no inferior cheese to be exported. The standardising gaA*e loopholes for abuse and was the cause of their trouble. The grading department should haA*e come doAvn heavily on offenders, Avho AA*ere “thrashing it for all they Avere Avortli.” All*. J. P. Alarx said he considered that far too much publicity had been given to statements that cheese had gone back in quality; they should not dec-ry their oavu quality. These statements, he added, had done tremendous harm and one could imagine the effect at Home. Air. AlcGuinness maintained that they could not blame the Press for the trouble experienced. “You should tell the people at Home not to talk about poor quality,” he added. Air. Astbury: It appears to me that although aa*€ have been making cheese for thirty years Ave do not make a better article than Avas then made. He considered that, because there bad been plenty of cheese on the market, buyers had been looking for faults to justify a fall in prices. If there had been a rising market nothing AA’oukl have been heard of it.

Air. Alarx considered that the name “standardised” had been a very unfortunate choice, and added that “standard” AA’ould have been much better, as carrying a much better impression.

Mr. Power: Apparently some factories went in for part skimming, and others did much more than that. Mr. T. R.. Anderson said that at no time had reports been better, and he considered that they were chasing a bogey which they could not catch. “There is nothing of which to be afraid,” he added, “and people are not now asking for a hard, dry cheese. There has been, in my opinion, a little over-production that squeezed down prices.” The chairman (Mr. Free;) assured suppliers that the directors would do their best to carry on with as good a quality as in the past. In reply to Mr. Parker, he said that the Dairy Board had undertaken to do free the Avhole of the work entailed by the levy to provide a. premium for finest cheese in the South Taranaki pool. He said in reply to another supplier that lie thought, next year there would he very little second grade cheese.