The Frozen Meat Trade.

Opunake Times, Volume V, Issue 201, 7 August 1896, Page 3

The Frozen Meat Trade.

(Taiauaki Herald.) The kernel of the new process for thawing‘is that the meat is suspended in the air, the degree of humidity of which is regulated so that the c ‘ mosphere is not sufficiently moist to precipitate a dew, and yet is sufficiently approaching saturation as not to be able to extract any moisture from the meat. The rapidity in thawing is caused by the quick circulation of the sir, and the temperature being raised to within slightly below the melting point of fat. The thawing by this method takes about half the time that the same meat suspended in the open would take to thaw. The meat under the present process is uninviting in appearance when thawed out, but becomes the very reverse under the process invented by Mr Peck ; and the gravy from it is of the same ' amount and quality as ordinary fresh billed meat. The frozen meat is taken from the cold store room through a door into the thawing room, and suspended by hooks from the ceiling. A fan draws air from the cold store (cold air being always dry in proportion to its coldness). That air is blown by by the fan tnrough the room in which the meat is hung. On its way the air passes through a tubular trunk surrounded by hot water, which raises the temperature of the air to about 75 degrees, and is blown by the force of the fan through the suspended meat. As the meat is raised in temperature to a certain degree moisture is added to the air, in order that the dew point of the heated air shall be below the temperature of the meat. The dew point is ascertained by the hygrometer, by which the moisture of the air can be ascertained to within a fraction of a drop to the cubic foot. This new process has already been exhibited by Mr Peck at the works, and many Waitara residents have sampled the thawed out meat and have ■ pronounced it to be as good as the ■ fresh-killed butchet’s meat, both in appearance and quality. Mr Peck has machinery fixed up at the works to demonstrate his process to those in the trade, experts, and any one else who takes an interest in the subject, but of course the great utility of his {irocess will be felt at Home where the arge cargoes of frozen meat are at present thawed out by an open air system, which, Mr Peck states, greatly the meat and causes it to //present an uninviting appearance ana' ;/ alsoaffects its quality, both of which points affect its sale in the market. The chief cost in the new process will be in the labor of removing the meat from the storeroom into the thawing chamber. / Mr has written to the Premier asking him to send an expert up to Waitara to see the process demonstrated. <