BUTTER ADULTERATION IN ENGLAND. NERVE DISORDERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 8951, 16 December 1905, Page 5

BUTTER ADULTERATION IN ENGLAND.

NERVE DISORDERS.

HOW IT IS DONE.

"CASEINE" LARGELY USED.

Sussex street merchants and exporters of New South Wales r butter generally (says the Sydney Daily' Telegraph) were not at all astonished at the recent statement that the Victorian Agent-General had communicated with the State Premier (Mr Bent) respecting the publication in England of a pamphlet by Messrs Wall and Co., produce merchants, shewing' how butter received from the colonies had been manipulated, to the disadvantage of, producers and exporters. They were, cognisant of the fact that such practices have been carried on for a considerable time past, and that the British Government, owing to the absence of a sufficiently comprehensive legislative enactment, is powerless to stop them.

The remarks of one merchant upon the subject were typical of the opinion held by the majority of the principal Sussex street traders. This- gentleman has only recently returned irom atrip to the Old Country, and while in England he made special enquiries regarding, the methods employed in Tooley street in the handling and selling of Australian butter. He emphasised the.iact that the adulteration of butter was carried on almost openly, as those engaged in the traffic had yery little to fear from, the lay. But the Neyr Zea T land product, was tampered with, to, a. much larger extent than, our own, for the reason that it lent itself the more readily to adulteration,. being dry," t of clean flavor, saltless, and pale in color— rfour very desirable characteristics. Owing, to a/ technicality in the law, butter mixed with a. milk product could , still be. termed, and disposed of,, as unadulterated butter. In cases- where it was blended. with margarine, the article was sold under, .the name of "butterol" or "delicioj" two well-known, brands on the London market at the piesent time.. But the- obstacle had. been surmounted— legally, -at { any rate— by, the admixture of "caseine," the', curd or coagulable part. of milk, which was sometimes spoken of as the leguminous .part of substances. The . blending was carried on to some exteni in London itself, but very largely in Holland. With regard to the practice so, far as London was concerned, an exporter of New South Wales butter states that in one, of the principal. streets of the metropolis there is a large warehouse to which, it was extremely difficult to obtain admittance. The proprietors of. this" establishment are large, buyers of New Zealand and Australian butter, 'while. they also purchase each day an enormous quantity of "skim milk," from which, evidently, the "caseine" was ■ manufactured. "What can they want -with so much skim milk each day?" he asks. "Thev-thing is. self-evident — they buy our buEter, blend it with caseine,' and sell it at a handsome profit as pure butter.

As instancing the huge, monetary returns that must be derived by these butter manipulators, it is stated' that a shipment of 700 boxes of the New Zealand product was once- purchased in Tooley street^ at 106s per cwt. ' It was then , shipped to Holland,- subjected to adulteration with "caseine," put up. in kegs, and eventually returned to London, where it was sold as pure butter at 98s. Not- ' withstanding the fact' that the wholo shipment was' disposed ,of at..'Be, per^rcwt less than its original costj, the,, manipulators were able to reap what could well be described as a very generous profit As a means of combatting the evil, .1 London firm had recently advised New Zealand manufacturers, to leave a larger quantity of moisture in their butter, and thus assure greater profits to- the pro ducer. But Xew Zealand's chief dairy commissioner (Mr J. A. Kinsella) did nob approve of this. He' maintained that' the installation of freezing machinery and the m«re uniform system of manufacture had done a 'great deal towards improving the quality— particularly at ' factories '" where impure water was used, and ''where an excessive quantity of moisture left in the butter— and claimed that .tne greatest improvement had been brought about by the introduction of a uniform ' system of ripening the cream with a starter pre 2 pared from a purue culture. He also considered it to be the duty of the Government to protect the good reputation of Xew Zealand butter by, as far as possible, watching the shipments until they reached the tables of the consumer afc Home.

Both New Zealand and Australian producers have been counselled on numerous occasions not to lend their highquality, creamy butter to such wholesale adulteration, even though they might receive 2s of 3s premium for ' unsalted makes. There is ! very 'little to be feared from adulteration with margarine ' as- butter so treated cannot be foisted hpon the consumer' as "pure butteT." It would nave to be sold under another name, and inducements have often to be field-, "put to the public in order to obtain-, i&eir patronage. A well-known London.' grocery firm is at the present moment giving away gratis a tin of biscuits to every purchaser of a certain quantity of- "butterniargarine.", • *'. Sydney produce merchants'and'exporters regard it as unfortunate -that the''Butter Bill was shelved during .the last session of the British Parliament.'" _ Until this nieasure -is passed the only^'waty to guard against the practices — in v the 1 opinion of Sussex street merchants — is by a careful system 'of watchihg'orfr "products' at the other end, .with a view* to .seeing where they are shipped and consumed, to note to what extent the adulteration"was being carried on, and if no6sible, bring aboufc prosecutions. Canada and Denmark have in London and other parts of England numerous- live commercial agents, who carefully watch not only such matters as butter adulteration, but everything bearing on the beet interests of their products generally

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