CREAM FOR THE TABLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21469, 18 April 1933, Page 13

CREAM FOR THE TABLE

Sir, —It is to bo hoped that Mr. P. 0. Vealo's arguments for a larger use of cream in New Zealand households will bear some fruit. It is true that in Auckland the price of cream has lately been reduced by one-third, to tho equivalent to Is 8d a pint, in cartons, but even that is absurdly high in comparison with what the farmer receives at the factory. Cream will never become a routine item in the New Zealand family's diet until the dairyman is prepared to deliver it from tho can at a reasonable price. Then it must be real cream. What is sold in Auckland to-day is a thin liquid described on the cartons as "reduced cream, containing not less than 25 per cent of milk fat." Why on earth need it be "reduced?" Tho vendors are evidently working on the legal minimum to which Mr. Veale refers. Needless to say, people buy cream because it is richer than milk; dilute it, and you discourage the consumer at once. The only way in which my wifo can make Auckland "cream" look at all like the real stuff is by whipping it up with an egg-beater. Surely in a dairying cotmtry like New Zealand the Government might very well set a higher standard for cream than 25 per cent of butter-fat. Failing this, tho Auckland vending organisations would do themselves a good turn if they would voluntarily adopt a proper standard and guaranteo it to the public. In other words, they should see that their suppliers do not add milk to the cream after it comes from the separator. Paterfamilias.