MARKING OF BUTTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20950, 13 August 1931, Page 17

MARKING OF BUTTER.

DISCUSSION IN BRITAIN. PRACTICE OF BLENDERS. , [FROM: OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, July 10. The Butter Harking Committee's report is now being considered by the parties affected. At the conference last week of the Federation of Grocers' Associations of the United Kingdom, the matter was discussed, and Mr. Stanley G. Shaw, who gave evidence before the committee in opposition to the application, made a long statement. Mr. Shaw said it was desired on every possible occasion to promote trade between the colonies and the Mother Country; but he wanted to point out the desirability of putting the feeling between them on a little better footing. Mr. A. E. Turner (Southampton) said that the worst feature of the butter blending business was the lie by implication that blended butters were English. The blenders had put their factories down in country districts, and customers came in and asked for Dorset or Devonshire butter because of the name on the packet. Mr. Shaw said it was an accepted fact at tha butter inquiry that once butters were blended there wa3 no known test which could separata them, and the only thing the analyst could do was to tell one whether the butter was pure or not. Thafc being so, the standing committee was aware that it would be very difficult to enforce any regulations that might be laid down. Replying to Mr. Tombs (Oxford), who referred to brand names ox blended butter, Mr Shaw 3aid that the country names used were only brand names. Tha butter that came from New Zealand was frequently branded with the name of a town. They agreed thafc where blended butter bore the name of an English country town there was a suggestion that it was of English origin. Invoices for such butter should be so marked that retailers could not be deceived. Tha following resolution was agreed to: "This conference emphatically states there is no general demand for the marking of all butters sold retail, and that the public interest will not be served by any such order: but we agree that the retailer and the public shall be protected in reference to packet blended butter by having each packet marked with some indication of origin."