BLENDED BUTTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21018, 6 May 1930, Page 11

BLENDED BUTTER.

INQUIRY CALLED FOR. PROTECTION OP THE PUBLIC. (Frost Oub Own Correspondent.) . LONDON, March 13. The revelations made a week ago with regard to butter blending are referred to again in The Times of Monday. After mentioning that roughly 80,000 tons of butter is used for blending, the agricultural correspondent of The Times goes on to say:— "It is here that intervention is called for, in the interests alike of the home producers and consumers. The processes of blending are a -fit subject for close inquiry, for, although the blended article may be palatable, equity and prudence suggest the adoption of measures, to. on* sure that the nutritive quality of the butter is not impaired. It is not proposed that the blending of butter and the sole of the blended brands should be pro* hibited; all that agriculturists urge is that it should be made impracticable for butter of this description to be sold, wholesale or retail, as genuine butter. This is a perfectly reasonable demand, and it should be possible to devise means for safeguarding home' producers against the restriction of markets and the depression of prices through competition with commodities which, however attractive to eye or palate, are definitely inferior in food value, Equally, the consumer has claims to be saved from paying, higher prices for the blended article than are consonant with the merit of the com: modify. Sir Douglas Newton stated that under existing conditions consumers were paying £2,000,000 a year more for blended butter than, its actual worth. He asserted that the process of blending and the manner of selling the butter enabled the vendors to charge 3d to 4d a pound more .than the butter would make before blend,ing. THOROUGH INVESTIGATION ADVISED. "These are remarkable figures, and id the common interest it is important that the question should be thoroughly invest]’, gated, and, if the suggestions are confirmed, no time should be lost in framing and enforcing measures /or protecting farmers and the consuming public from the ■ results of systems that act adversely upon homo industry'and domestic economy, Sir Douglas Newton cited in support of his case the notable fact that, while large quantities of butter are imported from countries as far apart as Russia and South America, butter from those countries la seldom obtainable on the retail market. Dominion butter and butter from certain other sources, of course, are purchasaole as imported in almost any shop, but the supplies from many of the smaller sources, the purity and quality of which may fairly be questioned, disappear after their arrival in this country, and it ( is suggested that they reappear in the guises referred to tit the meetings of the different bodies last week, .... “ The subject may not be new, but it has acquired a new meaning on account of the pressing necessity for disposing to better advantage of the surplus milk in this country. It is believed that the Ministry of Agriculture is sympathetic to any scheme that would make the position better for the producers, but some uncertainty obtains regarding the attitude of the Ministry of Health; It is fair that the position of the departments should be elucidated by searching inquiry without loss of time, for the immediate future p£ the milk business is creating growing con. cern. Nothing more is asked for than that it should be made impossible, or ex* ceedinglv difficult, for imported butter to be blended and sold under conditions, that make identification difficult or uncertain." A MATTER OF DECEPTION. " The fraction of the Imported butter used for blending purposes which comes from Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the Empire," says The Times in a leading article, “ is produced under good conditions and is of a high standard of excellence. Of the rest it is sufficient to say that in some of the foreign countries in which it is produced the standards of dairy inspection, if any, are much inferior to those imposed by the law in Great Britain and in the dominions. “But the vital point is not bo much the quality of the imported batter, as the fact that the trade in the blended article is largely a matter of deception. Nor is that all. At' at present conducted, it not only deceives the customer by deliberately! causing its wares to masquerade under false pretences as something better than they are.' but nt the same time defrauds the British dairy farmer by trading on the high reputation of his produce to" its manifest injury. If a section of the British public prefers the taste of the blended butter to the pure produce of their native farms, and are ready to pay more for it than it is worth, they cannot be prevented from buying it. On the other hand, they can be protected from buying it under a false name. Unless the united wisdom of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Empire Marketing Board,. the Food Council, the Board of Trade—and the Ministry of Health—can find a better way of righting the wrong, they might at least adopt the suggestion of the Imperial Economic Committee, and see that it is branded and sold as butter that is * blended ’ and not as something which it isenot.” '