STANDARDISED CHEESE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21147, 3 October 1930, Page 7

STANDARDISED CHEESE.

THE QUESTION OF BLENDING. reply to recent criticism. (Peb United Pbess Association.) HAMILTON, October 2. Mr C. J. Par lane, managing director of the New Zealand Co-op Dairy Company, interviewed in regard to cheese standardisation, said that much of the propaganda at present appearing in the press in regard to standardised cheese no doubt emanated from the grinders or blenders who had hitherto used substantial quantities of New Zealand high fat content cheese for blending with comparatively low fat content- “ full-cream ” cheese manufactured in Canada and the United Kingdom, or possibly skim milk cheese from Holland, with considerable Profit to themselves. Deprived of these profits, the grinders were now using precisely the same arguments in regard to New Zealand cheese that the blenders made in regard to butter when if was decided, some years ago to increase the moisture content from an average of approximately 9 to 15 per -cent. The claim then was that the quality had been ruined. “On that occasion, like th. present,” said Mr Parlane, “ persons in responsible positions in the dairy industry in New Zealand became panicky and repeatedly warned the producers that they were running the industry on to rocks. Notwithstanding this, however, the .producers refused to be stampeded, with the result that they firmly established their future policy and thus brought into New Zealand hundreds of thousands of pounds that would otherwise have gone into the pockets of the butter blenders In, the United Kingdom. It remains to be seen whether the cheese producers are going to stand firm on the policy they have decided upon, at least until such time as there is some evidence that such a policy is detrimentally, affecting their industry.” . Mr Parlane said that his company had kept in very close touch with the position in London, but up to the present had not had one tittle of evidence that the standardisation of milk for cheese-making was in any way responsible for the difliculties that were being experienced in regard to the quality of our cheese, whilst, on the other hand, a point that did very materially affect the suppliers to his own company’s cheese factories was the fact that their butter-fat payments were, during last season, increased on an average by about 3d per lb of butter-fat over and above what they would have received had full-cream cheese been manufactured,