MILK IN BLOCKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24808, 7 January 1942, Page 6

MILK IN BLOCKS

NEW DRIED PRODUCTS A TRIAL SHIPMENT A trial shipment of half a ton of compressed dried milk has been sent to England as the result of a successful experiment made by Australian scientists. If the shipment turns out satisfactorily a new avenue may be opened up for the greater supply of milk to Great Britain on the most economical basis as far as freights is concerned. Full cream powedered milk is sent in tins to the United Kingdom, and under present conditions ranks high in the priority of foodstuffs. It retains the nutritive elements of fresh milk in their original proportion, as only water has been extracted from the' milk. It has been found, however, that in course of time the air surrounding the grains of the powder causes a small amount of decomposition. For that reason, dried milk is now packed in tins in which the air has been replaced by nitrogen. The product in tins so packed keeps satisfactorily for a considerable time.

The supply of tinplate, however, is somewhat difficult, and, moreover, it has been realised that a considerable amount of valuable freight space could be saved if the dried milk were compressed into blocks and not packed in tins at all. It is believed that such compression would prevent the air reaching individual grains of the milk and thus decompostion would be avoided.

Investigations have accordingly been put in hand by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, acting upon a suggestion from the Department of Commerce. The results have shown that, under high pressure, dried whole cream milk powder can be moulded into a firm block and -the volume reduced by more than one-half. About 331 bof powder can be compressed into a cube, each side of which is about nine inches long. This block contains the food material from 26 gallons or 208 pints of milk. The blocks can be powdered and beaten up in water to reconvert them to milk.