THE CHEESE PROBLEM

Taranaki Daily News, 7 July 1931, Page 12

THE CHEESE PROBLEM

RETAILERS’ COMPLAINTS. WHOLESALE TRADER'S VIEWS. (Correspondent Christchurch Press.) London, May 22. “Producers in New Zealand are inclined to distrust the opinion of the Tooley Street importers. They regard us with suspicion. They think we have an axe to grind. Go to the wholesale houses and the retailers and see what they think of New Zealand cheese.”

Acting on this suggestion by a prominent importer of Tooley Street, I sought out a well-known and old-established wholesale provision and grocery firm and asked for a considered opinion. My informant, Mr. H. E. Vessey, a director of 1\ Reynolds, Sons, and Company, of 55 Charterhouse Street, very kindly extended his enquiries to retailers among his clientele, and to the travellers who are constantly in touch with the retailers. The results are illuminating, and producers may take it for granted that the wholesalers and the retailers, when criticising New Zealand cheese, have no other motive than to help the Dominion to solve this serious problem.

“We have had a considerable reduction in the price of butter,” said Mr. Vessey, “and as a result of that, reduction we have had a very considerable increase in the consumption. It is reasonable to suppose that the big reduction in the price of New Zealand cheese would have resulted in a corresponding increase in the consumption of that cheese. The figures from the wharves and docks show that that is not so. So far as lam able to gather, there has been no increase at all in thq consumption. “That being so, we have got to look fo. the reason, and, in my opinion, the reason is undoubtedly owing to the indifferent quality of New Zealand cheese. This bad quality is the prinicpal reason not only for the falling off in the sale of New Zealand cheese itself, but I believe it also has an adverse effect even on the sale of Canadian, which is undoubtedly superior to New in every way at the present time.” EFFECT ON CUSTOMERS. Mr. Vessey explained his . point in this way. A housewife goes to a grocer and asks for half a pound of cheese, and she gets half a pound of New Zealand cheese. When it appears on the table there are complaints from members of the family. They will not eat it. She says she will change the shop. Next time she wants to buy cheese she goes to another shop and asks for half a pound of cheese. The chances are that she is! again served with New Zealand cheese, and further complaints come from the family. Cheese is given up in that household. No enquiries are made. ■The housewife jumps to the- conclusion that all cheese is bad.

Among those whom Mr. Vessey quesiioned was the owner of about twenty shops. This retailer said that he had found New Zealand cheese so bad that he was now working Canadian. Australian, and South African when he could get it. He found these more or less satisfactory. Asked what complaints he had against New Zealand cheese, he said: “In regard to the white cheese, as soon as it is cut it turns yellow. It is badly made. When cut it shows cvacks, and if it has been cut for a time these cracks open out, some of them a quarter of an inch wide. There is practically no flavour in the cheese which for a considerable time has been very poor in quality, and has brought me continuous complaints. I am tempted to ask, is there anything else, say, in South African or Australian, or even Dutch Cheddar, that you can procure for our business that will give better satisfaction?

“The most general complaint is that the cheese, after cutting it in two, will become mildewed in twenty-four hours, the reason apparently being that the cheese have been badly pressed, and are not closely made. Again, the cheese do not store well, even uncut. They crack considerably on the outside. The air gets into the cheese and when cut blue mould is evident. I have sold hundreds of cheese of New Zealand make before the wax- twelve months old —at a premium—the flavour and condition being perfect. Now, if a customer keeps cheese three months he often has to bear considerable loss. I have had two instances of this this week.” The second traveller writes: “That there is something wrong with New Zealand cheese is obvious. The price is proof of that. New Zealand cheese have definitely fallen off in quality during the last two or three years, and if the sales of New Zealand cheese are becoming less, it is because of this and not owing to other classes of foodstuff taking its place, because of cheapness in price. “The trade to-day is looking round for something better and is finding it in Canadian cheese, and in English Cheddars, and to a small extent in South African and Australian cheese.

“As they are, New Zealand cheese are useless for keeping purposes, for it seems after two or three months the outside becomes cracked, with blue running into the cheese. When cut, the cheese immediately begins to dry, and in twenty-four hours after cutting it is not too much to say that the cheese is one mass of cracks and holes. In fortyeight hours after cutting blue is often seen right to the centre of the cheese. “It is only natural to lay the blame for this on the method of manufacture used in New Zealand, whatever that may be. It is easy to see that unless the trader has a very rapid sale the handling of New Zealand cheese proves anything but a paying line for him.” The third traveller writes: “The pi;incipal complaint I receive concerning New Zealand cheese is about the make. Generally, it is not firm, but full of small holes. These holes in the winter months become surrounded with a thin green mould, that is, when the grocer has not a very quick sale. I am speaking of the client who can sell only one cheese in a fortnight or ten days. Other complaints are no flavour, texture of cheese tough, the term used is ‘like rubber!’ “Another complaint is: At one end of the cheese and surrounding it there is a ridge about an inch from the end. This ridge cracks, and the cheese becomes mouldy in the crack, penetrating very often to a depth of two inches. I am continually being asked for credits to cover losses sustained through this trouble.” THE EXTRA PROFIT. “The trouble with New Zealand cheese,” said Mr. Vessey, “undoubtedly dated from the time when the makers in the Dominion began experimenting in order to obtain an extra profit. I refer to two circumstances —the making of standardised cheese and the waxing of the cheese. In the case of the former, cream is actually extracted with a view to making cheese more profitable to the producer. In the case of the latter the cheese are coated with wax with the object of preventing shrinkage during .transit. This results in ilia jaoisture.

being retained in the cheese and the maturing processes being retarded. Impurities, which, in the ordinary way, would pass away during transit, are retained in the cheese, consequent upon the wax coating. When the cheese is stripped and the process of shrinkage begins it is on a very exaggerated scale.. This may effect a considerable saving from the point of view of weight, but the financial gain is more than lost eventually by reason of the deterioration of the cheese.” Mr. Vessey mentioned that experiments carried out showed that the wax itself Weighed about 11b in. 3cwt of cheese, and the shrinkage retarded by the wax represented about 2J per cent, of th. weight of the cheese. A test was also made with two cheese, the one unwaxed and the other waxed. Both were stripped and after four days it was found that the loss of weight of the unwaxed cheese was only about half ,of the loss of weight in the waxed cheese. PASTEURISING MILK. “I am not a cheesemaker,” Mr. Vessey added, “but I have had' a very long experience in the cheese trade, and I aril wondering if the pasteurising of the milk is the cause of the trouble with New Zealand cheese. Generally speaking, the milk used for English cheese is , not pasteurised, but every care is taken to obtain pure milk, and these bad. characteristics that New Zealand cheese has got do not show up in English cheese. I have spoken to English cheesemakers on the subject, and they are firmly of the opinion that it would be fatal to pasteurise their milk. I rather think that the leathery texture that is complained of is consequent upon the pasteurisation of the milk.”