CHEESE RESEARCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20716, 8 November 1930, Page 12

CHEESE RESEARCH.

GRANT TO DOMINION.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD. PROBLEM OF OPEN TEXTURE. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Friday. Confirmation of the message published on October 16, regarding a grant of £2OOO by the Empire Marketing Board to the Dairy Research Institute, has been received by cable by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The Empire Marketing Board's grant provides £SOO for capital expenses, and £2OOO a year for four years, to be devoted to the investigation of the defects occurring in cheese texture. The grant is made in response to a request sent in June last by the dairy research management committee of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Open texture in cheese is regarded as one of tho Dominion's major dairying problems and it is difficult to estimate how much loss this trouble occasions each year to the dairy industry. One estimate places the total at £1,000,000. During the past few years much research work has been done to ascertain the causes of open texture in cheese, but so far the problem has remained unsolved, although it has been shown that several generally supposed causes have not been as contributory as has been alleged.

The workers, after having done a great deal of exploratory research, have corr.o to the conclusion that Ihe fundamental chemical and biological changes which occur in milk and curd, during the critical operations in the. cheese manufacture process, require investigation before any further real progress can bo made. They consider that the milk proteins, and their relation to cheese-making in New Zealand, require special attention and that the effects produced by specific organisms used as starters, and the study of the methods of maintaining the purity and virility of starters under factory conditions, demand the closest investigation. In these circumstances the grant of the Empire Marketing Board is particularly welcome, as it will enable the programme of the Dairy Research Institute to be both extended and intensified. When it is considered that the Dominion's cheese exports are worth about £6,000,000 a year, the importance of paying every possible attention to the maintenance of high quality is readily seen. As New Zealand's reputation with regard to cheese quality has been somewhat impaired, tho assistance rendered by the Empire Marketing Board will serve a materially good purpose in promoting £uch research as will overcome this difficulty.