QUALITY OF BUTTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22390, 9 April 1936, Page 15

QUALITY OF BUTTER

Sir v —"Progressive Farmer," in acclaiming that all is not well with the quality of our production of butter and cheese, correctly lays the blame on the producers themselves, and "the sooner we face up to these facts the better for the whole industry." A very simple experiment will convince any farmer why our butter does not have the appeal that Danish has with the consuming public of England. Let him take a portion of his own cream and turn it into butter, and then take a pound of butter returned from his factory and what comparison will he find? On the one hand, he has a butter with its full natural flavour, and on the other, practically the whole of that flavour is absent. In fact, the only flavour he gets is the salt that the butter contains, and herein lies the main reason why Danish is commanding the premium which represents the difference between success and failure of our primary industry to-day. Owing to our present-day methods of production the abilitv of our cream to retain the natural flavour is ruined before the factory receives it. The technical term of this trouble is acidity, it sounds much nicer than dirt. Acidity, as we will call it, requires neutralising and the amount of neutraliser used is governed by the acidity the cream contains. The more acidity for bacteria) the more neutraliser, and the more neutraliser applied the more natural flavour is eliminated from the finished product. It will be argued that the butter must be neutralised to enable it to be kept, etc. This is true, but eliminate 75 per cent of the acidity and 75 per cent less neutraliser is necessary; therefore you retain proportionately the natural flavour. How are we to attain this low acidity content in our cream? By following "Progressive Farmer's" advice. The enforcement of the present dairy regulations: a proper dairy shed hygiene technique should be laid down and rigidly enforced. Every dairy shed should be licensed, whether operated by sharemilker or owner, and the right to cancel or grant a licence in accordance with the standard of quality set. What better selling propaganda could our English distributors have than the news that the whole of New Zealand has become stc-rilisation-mindcd. and that the Government was enforcing regulations of the highest standard quality production in the world. Who is there among us who would not relish the knowledge of having the highest quality butter 011 his table. Would we pay more for it? The answer is obvious. W. Pbrcival Levy.