BUTTER WITHOUT PRESERVATIVES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 8 May 1912, Page 2

BUTTER WITHOUT PRESERVATIVES.

LONDON MERCHANT'S OPINION

The matter of butter without preservatives Has now advanced several stages (says the London correspondent or tne Sydney Morning Herald). Sir John Taverner, Ageni-Ueneral for Victoria, recently made a sort' of official test by submitting some' Victorian butter free of boracic acid to some of the loading Tooley-street houses for their expert report. On applying to tne Agent-General for the report, all he would say was this: "The general impression in Tooley-street is tnat the use of preservatives allowed by the law is necessary, and that butter so treated brings better prices than that without preservatives.'' But there is a great aeal more to be said. As regards the home trade, there is little it any call for unpreserved butter, and as it is I obvious that preservatives make fresh butter a more mercantile article by extending its keeping powers, were there not other considerations there would be an end of. „the matter, and Sir John Tayerner's brief statement would sum the question up. But, I presume that Australian dairy produce snippers would like to see an extended market for their goods; The same argument holds good here as in the frozen meat business, viz., if the Continental markets can be opened, the lessened quantities sent to London will result in a higher range or prices, and to get Australian butter to Continental marts means making it minus preservatives.

A member for one of the leading importing houses referred to the matter as follows:

"There has been a considerable quantity of butter without preservative lately—say, 2000 tons a season from Australia; also a large quantity from New Zealand. This butter is sent principally to Continental ports (a good deal goes to Marseilles), where they will not have preservatives in butter, and where the people have an idea that it is dangerous to health. Some butter from Australia comes salted without preservative —but this is in small quantities ; and some comes unsalted and without preservative—the bulk comes this way. Butter both salted and unsalted and without preservative will keep in cold store as well as when it contains preservative, but out of the cold stores it does not keep"" so well as when it contains preservative. Unsalted with preservative when out of store deteriorates quicker thlan salted with preservative when out of store. There is no objection to non-preserved butter, other than that it does not keep so well as when mixed with preservative. Tooleystreet generally thinks that preservative is necessary, because the butter

keeps better. "All Continental countries take butter without preservative. Blenders like butter with preservative, because it keeps better. They take unpreserved butter, but they do not like it. As to the question of price, this is all a matter of demand. If there is a good demand unpreserved sells as well as preserved, and at the same price, but if the demand is light, then preference *s given to the preserved. Undoubtedly the general opinion in Tooley-street is in favor of preservative. "I have never found a man yet who could tell me, by tasting, if butter contained preservatives or not, and to talk about non-preservative going off flavor more than preserved is nonsense, because nobody can-^tell the difference. If there is too much preservative, then it could be tasted —it would taste of boracic acid. The proper proportion is ilb of boracic acid to 1001b of butter, and in that proportion the preservative cannot be tasted.

"Why did not the, Victorian people carry out the test at horne —they could have done it equally as well in Australia as here. They could keep samples for five or six days, examine them, keep them for another five or six days, then they could see what deterioration had taken place, and have the same* data to go upon as by sending the stuff here. ' 'This season the drought on the Continent made European countries short of butter, and they had to come to this market more than they do generally; and there was a call upon Australia and New Zealand for unpreserved salted butters to meet this demand."