QUALITY OF CHEESE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21449, 24 March 1933, Page 8

QUALITY OF CHEESE

In his address to the Chamber of Commerce yesterday, Mr. W. Goodfellow stated that there was room for improvement in our cheese manufacture. lie might have said that there was great room for improvement. One does not need to have a knowledge of the London cheese market to speak with authority on the subject. Rarely does one obtain ordinary cheddar cheese that is satisfactory. In consequence, the industry has lost a local market that was well worth cultivating. Yet visitors to the Massey Agricultural College research dairy have there tasted cheese of a quality that would create a great demand anywhere. It may be too much to expect that in the matter of quality mass production methods can rise to the standards of a dairy research station, but it ought to be possible to produce for export a grade that will satisfy the requirements of the market. To this end regulations are being drafted by the Department of embodying the representative opinion of the industry. It is understood that the chief requirements will be the grading of milk with differential payment provisions, the prevention of a supplier leaving one factory for another during the currency of a season, and the licensing of factory managers. Tho enforcement of these regulations will strike at the root of one of the main evils, that of milk contamination and adulteration on the farm. Regulations, however, are not enough to bring about the improvement that must be made if the cheese market is to be held. There must be general co-operation. The farmer who is at fault must not be allowed to escape the penalty for his neglect or inefficiency under any circumstances. Directors of companies must sec that the regulations arc rigidly enforced, supporting their managers without question. The difficulties of cheese manufacture are heavy enough in themselves without the added handicap of unsatisfactory raw material. Further, the lessons of research must be applied. Careful attention must be paid to the maturing process, and storerooms that satisfy all requirements must be provided. Unless the effort for improvement covers every process from the milking shed to the ship's refrigerator, from the laboratory to the grading store, the menace to the market will not be removed.