FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1152, 30 March 1894, Page 16

FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

NEW METHOD OF THAWING MEAT.

Upon the subject of the frozen meat trade, the Department of Agriculture has just received a very, important communication from Mr S. Lowe (Government Dairy Expert at London). Writing on the 26th of January, Mr Lowe says: —Everybody at. all acquainted with the frozen meat trade of New Zealand is fully aware what an immense advantage it would be if the meat could bo brought to London in a chilled instead of a frozen state. Chilled meat would realise about a penny a pound more than frozen, and attempts are being made to secure this advantage by providing means for bringing it chilled. It is not in this direction, however, that I wish the colonist this week to turn his attention. It has long been held by practical and also scientific men that if a better system of thawing frozen meat could bo carried out, the price realised for it would be greatly augmented. This discovery has at last been made, not by a scientist but by an engineer. Mr Washington, the engineer of Messrs Wells and Co., of the Cold Stores, Port Said, is the fortunate discoverer. He and Mr Lichtenberg, of the same firm, ha\ e been making a series of experiments to verify the advantages of the discovery. A few days ago one of the best butchers in Smithfield was invited to examine beef treated by the new method of thawing. He came prepared witli a knife and a sceptical mind. Before cutting the meat he declared it would " weep " on being cut, that is, it would exude a very much greater quantity of the juices of the beef than fresh meat would do. He was very much surprised that it did not behave as he had anticipated. It cut very freely, and no more juice ran out of the beef than if it had been fresh. When first cut it is blue, but in about five minutes attains a beautiful ruby colour, and remains exactly like fresh beef. The process is still a secret, but a provisional patent has been applied for. I have learnt, however, that the operation of thawing is carried out by the use of electricity in connection with a series of fans to carry off the outside moisture. The period of thawing extends over fotir or five days, but the cost is infinitesimal when the operation is carried on at large freezing stores where there is generally an installation of electricity. It is the opinion of several of the best authorities in the frozen meat trade to whom I have spoken that beef will at least realise as much under this method of thawing as if it were chilled, and that the price of mutton will bo enhanced to the extent of a halfpenny or a penny a pound.