DAIRY RESEARCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21990, 27 June 1933, Page 8

DAIRY RESEARCH

EXPERIMENTS AT INSTITUTE . PROFESSOR RIDDETS REVIEW. An outline •of the work of the Dairy Research Institute was given by Professor W. Riddet, director of the institute, in an address delivered to the National Dairy Conference in Hamilton last ThursProfessor Riddet said that during the past dairying season the institute had continued to make a close study of problems associated with the manufacture of butter and cheese. It was well known that the average quality of New Zealand butter was held in high esteem in those districts in. Britain where it was widely sold. Some sections of the trade, however, preferred a product with a brighter flavour, characteristic of some European brands. The butter-making experiments, therefore, had been mainly concerned with an attempt to make a type of butter readily acceptable to these sections of the trade, so that markets tor Dominion produce in Britain might be extended. .. IMPORTANCE OF FRESH CREAM. From experiments made it was apparent that butter could be manufactured in New Zealand to suit any area in Britain if the butter was made from absolutely fresh cream. The addition to the cream of a trace of starter was an added advantage. To make this class of.butter there was necessary the daily collection of cleanly produced and carefully cooled cream, delivered at the factory earlr- in the day. Some factories already .were manufacturing it. Although proximity to the market was an important feature in preserving butter flavour, it could be said that prompt delivery .of the cream to the pasteuriser and churn was more important than the proximity of the churn to the market. , It could be claimed that a considerable amount of progress had been achieved at the institute in the direction of nndinrr methods of raising the quality of butter ,to a still higher level and ot eliminating factors giving rise to troubles in cheesemaking. Since the institute commenced work four years ago, many popular theories had been tested, and opinion replaced by fact, on which alone solid progress depended. WIDE SCOPE FOR Sound progress necessarily was slow and spectacular results seldom arose in any research work. The work on existing problems was far from complete, and the field of constructive research into new methods and new processes was comparatively untouched. The staff, however, already was tackling as much as it could cope with, and further work could not be undertaken without additional assistance. The work of the institute was the collective effort of all members of the staff, Professor Riddet concluded. As in past years, the institute had had the hearty co-operation and assistance of the Massev Agricultural College, Dairy Produce Board, dairy division officers in New Zealand and London, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the latter department's liaison_ officer in London, to all of whom the institute owed a debt of gratitude.