RENNET AND LACTOSE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, 7 October 1916, Page 8

RENNET AND LACTOSE.

The Otago Daily Times sq,ys that Professor Malcolm, speaking at a meeting of the Otago! Institute on the subject of "Rennet," indicated that h.e had been giving a considerable amount of attention to the difficulty with which the cheese industry of the dominion was I faced through the shortage of that essential substance. Experiments which he has made, though not yet quite complete, have convinced -him, h© says, that a great saving could be effected in the ; use of rennet by having regard to its action at different temperatures. Al- _ though rennet acts well at body tern; perature, that temperature does have a l'certain amount ■of destructive effect upon it. A small amount of rennet used anywhere between freezing point and 46 degrees Fahr. will produce, when the milk is.warmed up, the same effect as a I larger amount ■of rennet used at a higher temperature. H e pointed out that there was no reason why rennet should not be taken from the stomach of- lambs as well as from the stomachs of calves. He thoroughly approved of the suggestion' that the Government ought to undertake the supervision or standardisation of the , rennet used. Manufacturers would then know exactly how much rennet to add to milk of given acidity, and the quality of the cheese would also tend to b.e more uniform. Mr G. M. Thomson expressed the opinion. that our frozen meat works had enormous possibilities as a source of rennet, and with this view Professor Malcolm agreed. He added that it was a ■ disgraceful thing that lactose should be going to waste down the sewers from ( cheese .factories for so long in New Zealand. It was a most valuable food substance, and so far as he was aware only one factory was making any attempt to save it.