Supply of Rennet.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13524, 7 October 1916, Page 3

Supply of Rennet.

VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS. Professor Malcolm, speaking at the meeting of the Otago Institute on Tuesday night on the subject of Bonnet," indicated, states the "Otago, Daily Times," that he had been giving a considerable amount of attention to the difficultly with which the cheese industry of the Dominion was faced through the shortage of that essential substance. Experiments which he has made, though not yet quite complete, have convinced him, he says, that a great saving could be effected in the use of rennet by having regard to its action at different temperatures. Although rennet acts well at body temperature, that temperature docs have a certain amount of destructive effect upon it. A small amount of rennet used anywhere between freezing point and 46 degress Fahrenheit will produce, when the milk is warmed up, the same effect as a larger amount of rennet used at a higher temperature. He pointed out that there was no reason why rennet should not be taken from the stomachs of, lambs and as well as from the stomachs of calves. Ho 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 be more uniform. Mr G. M. Thomson expressed the opinion that ou. frozen meat works "had enormous possibilities as a source of rennet, and wiVli 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.