PREPARED AND RINDLESS CHEESE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6599, 14 May 1925, Page 3

PREPARED AND RINDLESS CHEESE.

Sales of a new type of cheese on the British market, a prepared and rindless variety, are reported to be increasing to an alarming extent, and samples have been forwarded to New Zealand for inspection.

This development in the industry, which has taken place during the last year or two, is the subject of comment by Mr D. G. Macfarlane, chairman of the London Board of the New Zealand Producers’ Co-operative Marketing Association, Ltd., in a communication to the Association. “Hitherto,” states Mr Macfarlane, “there has been no serious competitor to the Cheddar type as made at Home, in Canada, and New Zealand. These dominate the market, and will continue to do so for some time. The latest development in cheese, howeper, is rather disconcerting, and the enormous increase in the sale of the latest type is so alarming that I had samples forwarded here for the inspection of the dairy division and others interested. This cheese is what may be termed a prepared cheese, and is made from ordinary Cheddar cheese of good quality. This is ground down and treated so as to reduce it to a pulpy form. It is then moulded by machinery into five-pound blocks, in the same way as we mould a pound of butter, then tin-foiled all round in order to retain its moisture, and packed in oblong boxes. A halfpound indicator paper is placed on top for the guidance of the seller in cutting, and they are packed in parcels of five boxes, bound at both ends with wire. There is no rind and none develops. The lots I received were be five or six months old, and the cheese is quite moist, and no undue ripeness has developed. It can readily be understood that a rindless cheese, of good flavour, that can be spread on bread almost like butter, is attractively put up, and ensures the storekeeper a fair profit without any waste or shrinkage, is bound to have a fair sale. From the small storekeepers’ point of view, this type of cheese suits him to perfection. His complaint has always been that the large Cheddars dry up so rapidly, especially when his sales are slow, as is usually the case with the smaller men, resulting in virtually no profit, if not a loss, whereas the new type of cheese being a proprietary article, the price of same is fixed by the manufacturer to the wholesaler, his profit is fixed, and the retailers have to sell at a fixed price, showing a profit to the latter of around 16 per cent.” 1