COMMERCIAL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5948, 4 March 1881, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

Daily Times Office, Thursday eveniug. ; The amount 61 Customs Bevenue received to-day on goods entered for consumption was £2735 8s sd. THE MEAT-FIIEEZING PROCESS. The foUowing: important letter has been forwarded to us for publication :—. . . TO THE KDITOB. _ Sir,—We have just received by the Suez mail some information on the subject of freezing meat which we think, may interest your; readers... It appears to be aow established that to successfully deliver meat in Xon.ion from the Colonies two separate and distinct processes must be adopted—the one embracing the: -■ lolling, cooling, and freezing the carcasses on shore- thei «ther the keeping the meat at the proper temperature' duringthe'voyage. .The first might fairly be taken up. J>ythe producers; the second should, in our opinion be: /carried out by, the.shipowners. With regard to the: • first part, the operation to be carried out on shore '■ we think we cannot do better than quote extracts from ;» letter to our friends in London, written by the manager of one of the Food and Ice Companies in New' _ Sooth Wales,who consequently speaks with authority.! • : esays:— : ; --, , ■ ■ .■ ■ _ "1. The two rooms, upper and lower, referred to in my last. communication? are arranged for the first, cooling to 32 deg. in the upper, and then freezing and • stormg in .the lo\yer. - Both; rooms -may be used for' freezing and storing if required: the chilling room! "would then be used as a cooling room." B rZ?-, Tii eW u'u^y °l Piping in" the lower room is 0800 feet (linear), 4j inch in diameter, covering the' jrhole surface of the ceiling of the room, and dividedinto six bays or sections, each having a separate inlet and outlet, so that any one'may be stopped off or put • on as the requirements of the operations demand. Thor ■upper room is furnished with 3100 feet of similar piping to'the lower, and divided" into three bays or sections to regulate the temperature as required The chilling room is fitted with 660 feet of 2h inch piping on the walls and none on the ceiling. " "Our mode of operation in preparing a cargo would lie to cool the meat in the chilling room first to about 50 deg. Fahr., then reduce to 32 deg. in upper room and Ireeze hard and store in-the lower -room. By this means we can keep a continuous process without* causing any undesirable change in the upper or lower looms by putting in large -.quantities of hot meat at ■onetime.'; j ■■-: ;~- :.....-.■., .. : .-.-. ;■ ;. . .

"3. The refrigerating power is equalto 00 or 100 tons yer week of meat put at a temperature for safe keepxng, when our average temperatures are at 70 deg to 80 deg.; in the winter months larger quantities could bo dealt with.

"4. Fresh meat intended to be frozen and kept for ■»ny .length of time should be thoroughly cooled down to 50 deg. or 60 deg. as soon after killing as possible, and exposed to that temperature for 12 hours in * well-ventilated chamber before being frozen. If hot aneat is put in a freezing chamber the gases thrown off m cooling will taint the air in the room, and become Sxed in the meat. Ventilation is a most important thing in the rooms, particularly in the chilling room, ■where the animal heat and meaty smells are being given off. By the term ventilation is meant an absolute of air, not a circulation of the same washed or Jlltered. The volume of air exhausted from the room must be replaced by an equal volume of pure air, and -Jresh from its natural source. In our chilling room yre change the whole volume every hour; in thefreez--mg- rooms the whole volume of each every three hours -the fresh air taken in being filtered through cotton wool, cooled by exchange of temperature of air extracted, and further cooled and dried by special appajratus before being discharged in the room, and i?om wtueh.we have no deposit of snow-any moisture aT jTOttcd by opening the rooms, or the exhalations of the wen working in the rooms, or from the extraction of .water from the meat, is instantly fixed on the pipes ?n the ceiling conveying the cold brine; this is easily artmov^d by reversing the current of the brine in any one seaUon, thus thawing it, when it falls off by gravi lation. We don't thaw our pipes ofteuer than once in fox months.

"The opinion that the want of ventilation of the zreezing.rqom causes the dark colour of the meat is a mistake; tbe cause for discolouration should be Bought for jn the condition and the manner in which Jhe beast is killed and breathed, otherwise how can it ;te accounted for ttet two bodies of beef are of very different colour that have never been in a cellar or frozen? Absence of, or defective, ventilation will affect the flavour of meat, but I am sceptical of its influence on colour. . ;

''I.Save a fore-quarter of beef in the lower room

that has been there four years and five months, and is as perfect in colour as when it came in."

As to the second part, all that would bo required on board ship is a properly constructed chamber and a machine to keep the temperature at the required rate of coldness. Failing a line of steamers direct from here, sailing vessels would answer nearly as well: for, the temperature once being reduced to say 20 deg. below freezing in the chamber, rises but slowly—about one degree per diem. An engine would not, therefore, be required to work constantly, but only nbw and then, as the thermometers may show to be necessary.

The Protos had not arrived in London when the last mail left, but we aro able to give you the following letter, written at Port Said: — "The s.s. Protos arrived at Port Said from Melbourne on 31st December, with about 3000 carcasses of sheep and about 40 of oxen, the lower part of the fore hold alone being filled. - " The 'tween-deck is empty, the ship after waiting 18 days having to leave without her complement. " The refrigerating apparatus got out of order on the passage for about 24 hours, notwithstanding which the meat is in a splendid state of preservation, being entirely frozen up, and having to be broken with an axe. A roasted leg of mutton was tasted by our informant, who reports the meat to be of very good flavour.

" No part of the cargo had been thrown overboard. "The temperature was reported by the people on board to be (according to thermometer constantly let down) 7 deg. below freezing point in the 'tween-deck. It must be more in the hold. Besides the meat there is some butter, the rest of the cargo consisting of wool."

You are aware that the meat per Protos was frozen by the Giffard process, and we are able to state that the machine used (known, we believe, as the " Notus" refrigerator) is much less expensive than the Bell-Cole-man machine; there is no patent, and consequently no excessive royalties to be paid. The Australian Mortgage Land and Finance Company, whose representatives we are, have set aside a. large sum of money to make experiments with the above-named machine, and we shall have pleasure in placing the results of these experiments before your readers as soon as they are known. Meantime, we ;think any proceedings to be taken by a company here should be of a tentative nature, until we are in possession of fuller information on thesubject.—We are, &c., Cargills, Gibbs, and Co.