Openness in Cheese

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 98, 30 August 1923, Page 5

Openness in Cheese

AN INTERESTING PHOTO. ' ! • "* ■" I ■' CAN IT fife PREVENTED? I ->, ' -■> ■- -■ ■- • An interesting exhibit at the Rexdale Dairy Go’s annual meeting on Saturday (reports the Pahiatua Herald) was, a large photograph of an exhibit of New Zealand cheese in a shopwindow in the city of Bath, England. This had been forwarded to the secretary of the Rexdalo Company with a request that he bring it before as many cheese factory people a« < possible, The display of cheese ik a credit to the window dresser, and is a great advertisement for the Dominion, but it ' Has one serious defect which the camera has made startlingly evident. Every “cut” of cheese shows what is known to factory managers as “openness,” with the result that the whole effect of the advertisement is more or less marred. In referring to this matter of “openness,” Mr T. O’Dea, an experienced cheesemaker, and now a dilector of the Rexdale Dairy Company, stated to the meeting that the “holes” in the cheese were the result of fermentation. This fermentation was caused through milk being used which had not been as carefully attended to by the. farmer as it sh -uld have been. The whole responsibility for “gassy cheese” lay with the producer of milk, and not upon the cheesemaker who dealt with the milk. As a matter of fact, said Mr O’Dea, the cheese exhibited in the photo had come from a prize winning factory not more than 20 miles from this district, and the graders in Now Zealand had given this particular line of cheese very high points. That was the information which the secretary had received, and he believed it to be quite correct. So the position disclosed was that tho milk had appeared all right to tho factory manager, the cheese had appeared all right to the graders, anj therefore any defect that* appeared in the cheese when it w&s cut for s ale must have developed dur-, ing tho period of time between the grading and the delivery at Home of tho cheese. No foreign flavour, such as turnip, would bring this about, and it was quite safe to pay that tho absence {of care on tho farm was th,o result of fermentation, which brought about tho condition of tilings as indicated by the camera.

Replying to a question as to whether any fermentation could bo sol) up with certain feed given to cows, Mr O'Dca’s reply wag to the point, “No, fermentation came from dirt, and was absolutely a certainty in hot weather, if conditions made it possible.”