VACUUM-PACKED BUTTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22318, 16 January 1936, Page 11

VACUUM-PACKED BUTTER

CRITICISM OF RESULTS DUNEDIN DAIRYMEN'S VIEWS [BY TEI.ECRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] DUNEDIN, Wednesday The process involved in producing vacuum-packed butter is not yet complete and if adopted throughout New Zealand at the present time it would prove prejudicial to the dairying industry in the opinion of a local dairy factory manager with an intimate understanding of every phase of the industry. His remarks were based on an announcement from London a few days ago that Mr. L. Reynolds reported there was considerable interest in vacuum-packed produce. The cabled report stated that vacuum-packed butter was commanding 12s premium and cheese 20s premium, but those interested in the trade in Duncdin consider if such was the case only a small lotmust have been involved in the transaction, for the improved figures were not apparent in the returns to any of the dairy companies in New Zealand. An expert in the manufacture <>f butter was of the opinion that at the present time vacuum-packed butter could not be guaranteed to maintain its quality in transit to the London market. His experience was that the vacuum process, either in packing oi manufacture, robbed the lactic bactei ia, which were essential in the preservation of New Zealand butter, of oxygen, which kept bacteria alive. Ihe result was that butter so treated became putrid in a comparatively short time. Vacuum-packed butter offered several advantages to the exporter in the way of reduced boxes and consequently lower freight charges, but the Government experts, who were continually on the look out for any new development which might benefit industry, had not yet been attracted by the vacuum process.