SHRINKAGE OF CHEESE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19892, 10 March 1928, Page 12

SHRINKAGE OF CHEESE.

EFFORTS TO REDUCE Losß.

EXPERIMENTS AT HAWERA. VACUUM CONTAINERS TESTED. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION. 0 HAWERA, Friday. The Minister of Agriculture, Hon. O. J. Hawkeu, was present with 100 representatives of dairy factories to-day at the opening of plant for the manufacture of vacuum cheese containers and the opening of a number of containers in which cheese was packed several months ago under the supervision of Mr. P. O. Veale, scientist at the Hawera dairy laboratory. Twelve containers were opened containing cheeses, some at two days after manufacture and the others at 14 days. In contrast wsre a number of cheeses crated in the ordinary way. The object was to ascertain the amount of shrinkage in the different methods of handling. Mr. Veale found after careful weighing that the shrinkage under Vacuum . was very small, l£lb for four white unpasteurised cheeses and for four coloured pasteurised cheeses. In contrast" the shrinkage in crated cheeses was 22jflb and 211b respectively. These were all cheeses taken into a container at two days from manufacture. With the cheeses taken at 14 days the shrinkage wa3 a little more. At the same time a container was opened which had been sealed for 14 months and the shrinkage was found to be only lib. Mr. T. A. Winks, president of the Taranaki Dairy Federation, said the saving could be estimated when it was realised that an average for the first 14 days was 1 per cent, and from that time to arrival on the London market 22 per cent. • .