IMPROVED QUALITY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 73, 8 March 1933, Page 11

IMPROVED QUALITY

OF N.Z. DAIRY PRODUCE MAINTENANCE OF GOODWILL. STRESSED BY PROFESSOR RIDDET. “ Quality can be assured only by consistent effort-, unremitting attention to innumerable details of production, manufacture, storage and transport of produce, the true cooperation of all concerned in the business, and the fearless treatment of those who shirk their national duty. First-class produce is the guarantor of goodwill, and goodwill is the preservative of markets. At present price is only a small reward for quality. Goodwill is much more important, especially when production has to be preserved.”

Thus Professor Kiddet, in charge of dairy research at Massey College, during the course of an address to Taranaki dairy factory managers at New Plymouth. Professor Riddet dealt with all branches of dairy manufacture, pointing out the need for improvement, if quality was to be maintained. Of particular interest to Hawke's Bay dairy farmers were his remarks on the production of first quality milk. “The first essential in the manufacture or good produce is finest grade milk and cream,” said Mr Riddet. “No amount of skill or ingenuity will entirely overcome defective treatment at the point of production. We must have a standard for our raw material. An ideal standard would take account of the manufacturing solids iu the milk or cream, the flavour of the raw material and the purity of it. To-day, however, flavour and purity are of the greatest importance. Manufacturing solids undoubtedly are very important, but they can look after themselves to a considerable extent because payment for milk and cream is based on them by measurement of the fat, and reasonably good quality produce can be .made from raw material of widely varying fat content. “Undoubtedly it is more difficult to make good cheese from very rich milk than from that of normal test, and white cheese made from very rich milk is too yellow in colour for the normal British white cheese trade. On that account attempts to increase milk tests undoubtedly are not desirable; yet the fact remains that we cannot change our cows in a few days or even in years; but we can actually improve our produce straight away by improving the purity of our raw material. The best standard for either milk or cream obviously is the nearest practical approach to its condition as it is drawn fiom the healthy udder of a healthy cow. Impurities are mainly due to bacteria. Frequently food flavours are present, out these are less common than are bacterial defects. Bud flavours, espe-

cially in butter and cream, frequently are attributable to feeds, but there is reason to believe that such flavours are not infrequently due to other causes. “Milk freshly drawn from a healthy udder contains very few bacteria, but oactcria readily gain access to the milk from the milking-plant, dirty teats, udders, tails and flanks of cows, unclean milkers, milk and cream cans, coolers

and the like. In warm, freshly-drawn milk they readily multiply. Therein lies the first step to the deterioration of produce. No amount of straining will remove bacteria, and though we may destroy a large number by pasteurisation, this process cannot rectify undesirable changes already brought about in the raw milk. It is plainly evident that wc must base any definite standard partly upon numbers of bacteria, aiming at as low a number as it is practicable to attain. A low number can be attained by preventing bacteria from entering the milk, and thereafter cooling the milk or cream to at least 65dcg. E. quickly and immediately niter milking. Besides numbers of bacteria, types are important, and we should have tests accordingly.

“'.line milk-souring types in moderate numbers are not harmful for cheesemaking milk, but the important point is that in producing milk we cannot possibly separate the good types from the bad types as they enter the milk, since they often come from the same source. Certainly many very bad types come from dirty machines and they accentuate tho conditions brought about by normal mixed types. Elimination as far us is practicable of all types is a sound principle. Dung is a source of some bad types. These are notably held in restraint by effective cooling. “We need on every dairy farm effective sterilising equipment which will provide ample boiling water and also steam, if practicable, an abundant pure water supply, good coolers, and cleanly workers. Each one is as important as the other. Simple effective sterilisers are not beyond the buying range of Hirers. In very few districts is a good water supply not available. Admittedly some farms may not posse® a good supply, but surely it is not impossible to get such in most of our dairying districts which have a rainfall of over -lij niches. ”