QUALITY OF CHEESE

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1930, Page 15

QUALITY OF CHEESE

T'WO CAUSES OF COMPLAINT. ; MR. W. M. SINGLETON’S ADVICE. An address on cheese quality was delivered by Mr. W. M. Singleton, director of the dairy division, to the South Island Dairy Association at Dunedin od Thursday. Mr. Singleton said that from time to time the dairy division got reports from officers in London regarding the quality of both butter and cheese. These reports might be classed under two headings: Favourable and unfavourable. So far as cheese was concerned, the unfavourable reports could be subdivided into two—-those which referred to an excess of moisture content and those which referred to an insufficiency of it. What he had seen in the Old Country led him to stress the importance of the factory brand on cheese. Some managers were not inclined to think that that was an important matter. r had been cases where complaint had been made about cheese from other countries which was at first believed to have come from New Zealand owing to the absence of a brand. The market conditions were not favourable, said Mr. Singleton, and when that was the case they expected more complaints than when the conditions were normal. The conditions had been more unfavourable for butler chan for cheese, but they had more complaints about cheese than about butter. Openness in texture and immaturity were the' two complaints. Some of the openness was due to fermentation and. bacteria and some- ..was what was known as- mechanical. Both should be got over in the ordinary methods of manufacture. Then there was slit openness, which they did not understand so thoroughly. That question had been giving the department some trouble. Openness as a whole was the cardinal fault of New Zealand cheese, and was making it less popular than would be the case if it were of close body. In some cases the openness was due to the faults in the quality of the milk received, in others it was connected with the manufacture ,and in others to something which was tending to produce that slit openness winch he had to admit was not entirely understood. Immaturity applied principally to the spring make of cheese and to all countries. That was so pronounced when he was at Home that he had sent a cablegram to New Zealand urging more maturity. It was to their interest to have more mature cheese so as to have a greater quantity consumed before the Canadian supply came to hand. He thought it would he advisable not only to warm their curing rooms up to, say, 65 degrees, but also to keep their cheese on the shelves for another week or so.

Mr. Wright had commented on the various faults in their cheese. These were duo in particular eases to excess water, to excess of water and acidity, to a lack of moisture, and to the wrong amount of curd and excess of .salt. Siltiness was probably caused by a lack of firmness in the whey and to an excess of salt. He would not say that these defects were in all their cheese, as some of the reports were quite favourable to cheese. Some of the reports stated, "moreover, tliat there was too -much moisture in their cheese, and others tliat there was too little.

Factory managers, he thought, had not got on to that even keel of manufacture that they were on before they manufactured the standardised cheese. He was of the opinion that the factory managers, .as they had experience of. standardised cheese, would obtain, a more uniform standard. He thought more could be done in the way of producing better quality. The chairman said he y’ould like to points out tliat Otago finest cheese had this year graded 69 per cent., Southland had graded 56% per cent., and Canterbury and Westland 31 % per cent. Following upon a general discussion, the meeting passed a resolution urging that the appointment of farm dairy instructors was desirable.