BUTTER PRESERVATIVE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6617, 23 May 1928, Page 10

BUTTER PRESERVATIVE

BORIC ACID PROHIBITION. MR GODDFELLOW’S SUPPORT A statement in defence ol’ tnc prohibition of the use of boric acid in the manufacture of butter was made last week by Mr W; Goodfellow, managingdirector of the New Zealand Co-opera-tive Dairy Company Limited. Referring to recent London statements on the question, Mr Goodfellow said: “The New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company has for several years past been making the whole of its production without the use of boric acid. Prior to coming to the decision to do so, the company’s chief chemist carried out an extensive series of experiments over an extended period. They amply demonstrated the fact that boric acid is unnecessary as a preservative in butter of good quality." Undoubtedly boric acid was of value in the. sale of low quality butter, and particularly in blended butter. From private information received by the company, it was apparent that the objections now being voiced in London against the abolition of preservativeemanated largely from the blending trade. As a matter of fact, his company’s sales of carton butter had materially expanded in recent months as the direct result of multiple shops selling carton butter instead of the blended article as hitherto. “Tho compulsory abolition of the use of preservatives, in the manufacture of butter has, therefore, indirectly been of great benefit to countries like New Zealand, producing a high-grade article,” Mr Goodfellow said. He was emphatically of opinion that it would be a very foolish thing if the industry abetted any agitation for the cancellation of the restrictions.