NEW ZEALAND CASEIN

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1932, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND CASEIN

THE GERMAN MARKET. THREATS OF AN EMBARGO. London, Oct. 28. Among the Hartz Mountains, in Germany, they make a cheap but palatable cheese with the aid of casein and for many years that casein has come from New? Zealand. Amalgamated Dairies have supplied approximately 1200 tons of casein for the cheese made each winter, but powers are at work to prevent this casein from going into Germany. One quality is particularly necessary if the casein is to be used for cheesemaking. It must not contain iron in greater quantity than 50. in a million parts. If the iron exceeds this proportion,.; the cheese goes black in a day or two. New Zealand casein has 30 parts of iron or less to the million parts, hence its acceptability to the German cheesemakers. The casein is used as a binder for the curds and. the resultant cheese is not unlike Gorgonzola in appearance. It is sold in pats costing the equivalent of 2d and eaten very largely by the poorer people between black bread. For some considerable time the Germans have tried to produce a suitable edible casein themselves, but they have not met with success. It is now proposed by certain interested parties that the German farmers should be supplied with up-to-date first-class casein manufacturing machinery through their Government, and that regulations should be framed making it compulsory for imported casein to be impregnated with petrol or other poisonous material. The Argentine is another large exporter of casein to (Germany, but the material from that country is used only for the manufacture of ornaments, utensils and such like articles.

Steps are being taken both in New Zealand and in this country to counteract the movement, which practically places an embargo on the New Zealand trade. Amalgamated Dairies have gone to work through official channels, the British Foreign Office, and as Great Britain is now in a position to take retaliatory measures it is hoped that the matter will be settled in a manner which will safeguard the New Zealand casein trade.