TRANSPORT PROBLEMS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4535, 11 February 1942, Page 8

TRANSPORT PROBLEMS

STORAGE OF FOODSTUFFS QUESTION OF INSULATION Encouraging results have attended the efforts of the Auckland Farmers’ Union to deal with the problem of the storage and transport overseas of foodstuffs in view of the shortage of vessels fitted up with insulated chambers. At the recent executive meeting Mr C. A. Moore reported on experiments that have been undertaken with portable insulators that could be placed on the deck or in the cargo holds of any steamer. A small model of the class of insulator proposed had been used in a local dairy factory, and the box had been filled with butter taken direct from the freezing stores. It had been placed in the factory and left there, subject to all ordinary atmospheric changes, for six weeks. Twenty-four hours after it had been taken out the butter was tested and graded 89, just on the border line of “finest.” Only an inch of insulation had been used, whereas it was expected when the experiments were commenced that the portable insulators proposed would have three inches of insulation.

“If,” said Mr Moore, “we can Keep butter for six weeks with only an inch of insulation, is it not reasonable to suppose that with three inches we shall be able to carry either butter or meat at least as far as Singapore and the East Indies without encroaching on the short supply of refrigerated space?” Moreover, he added, with a larger quantity even better results might be expected, as the boxes or tanks in the centre would be less susceptible at atmospheric changes. Members endorsed the remarks of

the chairman that the experiments were most valuable. It is understood that the next experiment will be with meat.