CHEESE STANDARDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1934, Page 6

CHEESE STANDARDS.

A point of considerable importance to the dairy industry has been raised by Mr. J. A. Adams, manager of the Lowgarth factory. He points out the marked discrepancy between the opinions of expert judges in the Dominion and in London, and he asks with much pertinence how a standard of manufacture can be arrived at to which New Zealand factories can work with an assurance that cheese of that standard will be considered of highest quality by buyers in Great Britain. The most curious point in regard to the appraisement of Lowgarth cheese entered for competition at the Carterton show last October is that the opinion of a buying expert in London not only reversed that of judges at the show and the later judgment of the Dairy Division at Wellington, but was widely at variance with the opinion of Mr. Walter Wright, Dairy Division officer stationed in London. Mr. Richens, the importers’ representative, put the Lowgarth cheese, both coloured and white, first in order of merit Mr. Wright put the white cheese fifth and the coloured eleventh, and the difference is certainly wide enough to cause some comment. In the analysis of the awards the discrepancy is the more apparent, Mr. Wright finding the coloured sample of poor quality while Mr. Richens found it good. The question naturally arises whether if a third judge had examined the cheese his verdict would have differed from the others given, and if so who is to pet the standard at which New Zealand must aim. It is a matter which concerns the whole industry, and no doubt will have the attention of the Dairy Control Board and of its official advisers.