VITAMINES IN BUTTER

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1640, 12 May 1925, Page 2

VITAMINES IN BUTTER

NEW ZEALAND'S ADVANTAGE.

A 'CHANCE FOR PUBLICITY,

A suggestion that should assist in giving New Zealand butter is rightful place on tlhe London market by demonstrating its superiority over its rivals, and particularly over butter from stallfed animals, is contained in a letter from Mr H. V. Coverdale, formerly of Auckland, and now of St. Thomas' Hospital, London. Mr Coverdale remarks that there is continued reference to pure food in the English papers, mostly in reference to preservatives and their possible dangers and to vitamines, and he suggests that some publicity on these lines by the New Zealand dairying interests would be of coniderable value. He mentions that the supposed superiority of Danish butter is a bubble that badly needs pricking. While most foods have been dealt with, butter has not yet been the subject of public discussion, and he sees no reason why New Zealand should not take the initiative and point out the superiority of her products, taking such points as purity, vitamine value, fat and food value, and flavour, the English public being sufficiently Informed to appreciate such arguments.

" Dairy produce in England is made with a total disregard for cleanliness," states Mr Coverdale, " and except that the Ministry of Health would s?on track down contamination from a typhoid carrier, there is no supervision or control. Many farmers do not even wash their milk cans. It is, I believe, a fact that New Zealand is the only country exporting in quantity to England where dairy cows are fed all the year round on grass. This is a point of great importance, and much could be made of it, for grass is the source of vitamines. It is now known, by a few scientists only, that in winter the milk and butter from stall-fed cows contain very little vitamine, and rats fed on them quickly develop rickets. Some medical officers of health have even advocated the use for children of dried imported milk from countries where cows are not stall-fed. As regards fat and food value, analysis has shown that New Zealand butter is superior to other brands."