FROZEN FOOD SECRETS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19124, 19 March 1924, Page 8

FROZEN FOOD SECRETS.

DISCOVERIES THAT MAKE THE LARDER SAFER. Changes which preserved foods undergo when stored in lowered temperatures are being investigated by the Food Investigation Board at their Low Temperature Research Station, Cambridge (states the Daily Chronicle). Many discoveries about the preservation of meat, fish, and fruit are quoted in the annual report just issued. Elaborate freezing tanks and arrangements for maintaining areas of the station at a constant temperature, and for the regulation of humio'ity and air movement, have been set up. Some of the rooms are fitted with automatically-controlled electrical heating. has been found possible to maintain temperatures over long periods with no greater fluctuation than O.OSdeg. An experiment on eggs ended in the discovery'that successful preservation by cold can be obtained only when the freezing does not fall below a certain level If kept within this limit they will thaw fresh. If, however, after being froezn at this degree of cold, they are stored at a still lower temperature, the eggs are spoilt. Scientists say this has so upset the accepted theorv of the freezing of tissues as to render a iresh department necessary. Discolouration in the eyes and gills of frozen fish was investigated, and it was found that these peculiarities of storage were superficial, and in no way detracted from the value of the fi«h This important point, however, is made: ‘‘lt is for the industry to consider whether it is more worth while spending money in educating salesmen and consumers bo an appreciation of the quality of fish which have been frozen on right lines. That (his is no idle question the following example shows. We have received herrings from the ordinary market, which are sold and accented ns fresh, whose tissues have been almost liquid with bacteria. It is surely a matter for reflection, when one finds that such fish would command more attention than brine-frozen herrings of impeccable quality, whoso sole defect was au insignificant change in the structure pf the lens of tlie eye.” Successful demonstrations of the storage of apples in gas have been made. Tho average gross return obtained from .ales of the apples after storage was nearly two and a-half times the cost of the apples when received. It has been found that .lie flesh of an apple is permeated by a system of minute tubes containing air, whicli the npplo uses in “breathing.’’ It is at .he opening of these canals on the surface of the fruit where certain diseases start