FIGHT FOR QUALITY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 94, 4 April 1934, Page 11

FIGHT FOR QUALITY

N.Z. Dairy Product CAUSES OF POOR GRADINGS Quality and cleanliness go together in the production of milk and cream. In the great majority of cases loss of quality in cream can be traced to neglect to carry out this fundamental rule of dairying at all stages fn.m the time the milk i s being drawn from the cow until it is delivered at the factory. But even where the utmost cleanliness is practised it is sometimes found that cream is graded down because of an off-flavour. Such flavours may arise from a variety of causes. This season the writer has heard 01 a number of cases where factory suppliers have had considerable trouble with their cream gradings. Instances of this ar- queued by the Ormondville correspondent of the “ Tribune ” in this issue. As inti wiled abo«, although weather conditions may to a ccitain extent bo responsiblo lor such oviurrences, this kss in quality is most eommonly caused through a hygeinie defect. In Australia the matter of milk and cream quality ha„ been giving the responsible authorities serious food lur thought and -Irasttc action is contemplated to ensure tint quality will bo maintained. Quality is paid for, and first as it is essential for the sheep-far-mers of the Dominion to keep up the standard of Now Zealand mutton and lamb, so is it essential that the quality of our dairy products be maintained. At certain seasons of tho year and in certain districts fodder taints may be responsible for the grading down of considerable quantities of otherwise choicest quality cream. All green fodders have tho effect of tainting the milk to a certain extent, and. though Some may Be milcT and not objectionable, others are so strong and unplea-

sant as to be a serious drawback. Where practicable the feeding of fodders known to impart a strong flavour to the milk should be avoided. Where this is not possible or practicable the trouble may be minimised by turning the cows off the fodder responsible at least two hours before milking and by cooling and aerating the milk immediately.

A metallic flavour in cream usually is due to the action of the lactic acid in the cream on certain metals with which it has come into contact. It occurs only when portion of the separator or of one of the buckets or cream cans has lost the tinning from its surfaet. To overcome the trouble the part, if in good order otherwise, should be re-tinned; if not in good order, it will pay to discard it in favour of a new part. Cream ha s a remarkable facility for absorbing and retaining certain odours, and it is imperative that it should not be stored close to anything likely to give off any objectionable odor such as. for example, kerosene or engine oil WARM WEATHER. Cream sometimes acquires a tallowy flavour, particularly in warm weather. This is due generally to the cream being exposed to heat, or being airdried ou the surface, resulting in a permanent change in the chemical nature of the butter tat. This defect is magnified rather than reduced by the subsequent pasteurisation at the butter factory. A fermented flavour sometitaes met with may be due to a variety of causes, the most common of which are keeping the cream too long, mixing creams ot different temperatures, inad equate washing of the separator, and holding milk overnight for separating on the following morning. A sour flavour, due to too much lactic acid in the cream, may be caused by too low a test, warm conditions and age. If cream is kept too long on the farm before being delivered to the factory it will develop a stale flavour to such an extent that, it may be bordering on rancidity by the time it reaches the factory—the temedy for this defect, as with many others, should be obvious.

To-day there i s a fight for quality. In the past few seasons many countries not previously regarded as serious competitors in the London market have increased their exports of butter to such an extent that this, the world's most important market, has been tremendously oversupplied. The net result is that British wholesale butter buyers have been able to be much more discriminating with regard to quality than was the case a few years ago. With so much butter available only the best ean find a ready sale.

It is sometimes argued (hat the difference in price between choicest quality and first grade butter is so small as to make it hardly worth while to put forward the extra effort necessary to produce the better article. But whatever might have been said in support of that argument a few yea/s ago cannot apply now, when prices are so low that every penny counts. It should be borne in mind also that the price for butter sold ou the local market is affected by the London price, so that any reduction there i a responsible for additional losses to the industry through lower local prices.

There is no disputing the fact that the person mainly responsible for the quality of the butter is the dairy farmer himself. Unless he supplies choicest quality cream to the factory he cannot expect the factory manager to turn out choicest quality butter, and as inferior quality cream from a few suppliers may mean a reduction in quality of the whole of the output of that factory, it- becomes obvious that the quality of each supplier’s cream and its proper grading are matters of interest to the whole of the suppliers.