DAIRY RESEARCH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 135, 9 May 1945, Page 6

DAIRY RESEARCH

A review of the work which had been done by the Dairy Research Institute during the past year was given by Professor W. Riddet, head of the institute, at the opening of the dairy factory managers' week at Massey College yesterday. Professor Riddet said that for some time past it had been felt by the managers that bulletins should be issued so that they could keep in touch witli the manufacturing side of the industry. It was hoped to inaugurate this in the near future. The work of the institute had been influenced by war conditions and they had had to devote a good deal of time to problems arising from war-time conditions. They had had to do their liest for the war effort, and to that extent they had to move from one thing to another, but the work of the institute had not suffered.

At Frankton a plant had been erected which could produce 100 tons per day of dried butterfat. It had been erected at the behest of the British Ministry of Food as a safety measure against a shortage of food. The war conditions had changed and it had not been necessary to put the plant into operation, and it was now being dismantled. The vitamin content of butterfat had been examined, and they were now in the fortunate position of knowing something about this. It was sometimes wise to look ahead and plan. A survey of the whole country would be made to find out the vitamin A and B content of butterfat. The method of packing cheese into small packages to determine its keeping qualities had been examined, added Professor Riddet. Experiments had also been made with the spread of mixing cheese and dried butterfat, and a real tit-bit had been produced. It was not yet made in large quantities because of the rationing of butter. The keeping of cheese mites under control had also been investigated and a method devised for killing the mites without doing any harm to the cheese. Other matters investigated included the keeping of starters active from day to day, the provision of sufficient proteins in food for a destitute Europe, the manufacture of a standardised cheese, the cleaning of milking machines, and the power of increasing the butterfat production.