STANDARDISED CHEESE

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18158, 24 October 1930, Page 7

STANDARDISED CHEESE

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. / WILL BE OVERCOME. N.Z. CO-OP. DAIRY COMPANY. Our cheese suppliers have reason to he somewhat concerned at the efforts that are at present being made to bring about an amendment of the regulations permitting the standardisation of milk for cheese making, states Mr C. J. Parlane, general man-ager-of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company in this month’s issue of The Dairyfarmer. Indeed, it would appear that some of the leaders of the industry have become panicky, and are -making a very determined effort to hold standardisation of milk responsible for all of the complaints received from London concerning the quality of our cheese. We are, of course, aware that there is room for improvement in the quality, and I have little doubt that the difficulties that we are experiencing in this regard will in due course be overcome wihout any amendment to-the present regulations insofar as the standardisation of milk is concerned.;

I may say that we have kept in very close touch with the marketing of our cheese in Britain, and up to the present we have no evidence whatever that the standardisation of milk is in any way responsible for the present press reports concerning quality; indeed, many of these reports we regard as gross exaggeration. If we had any evidence that standardisation of milk was in any way responsible for defects in our cheese, we should not hesitate to adjust our present method of manufacture. The position is, therefore, 'that, on one hand, we have no evidence that standardisation is in any way responsible, whilst on the other hand, the suppliers to our cheese factories actually received during last season an average of id per lb. butterfat more than they would have received had we made full cream cheese. Therefore, the question before the producers n'ow is,-can they afford to be deprived of this extra payipent, more particularly in view of the possibility of much lower prices obtaining in the future. The plain fact is, that standardised nilk cheese is the only cheese availible to the British consumer with a guaranteed minimum fat content of 50 per cent, in the dry matter. The British regulations demand 45 per cent, of fat only, and it is a well known fact that even some of the so-called “full cream” cheese made in New Zealand cannot measure up to the 50 per cent, fat standard.

Hardly Believable. In view of the fact that standardised cheese carries a guarantee of 50 per cent, of fat in the dry matter, it is hardly believable, if press reports are correct, that the chairman of th£ Control-Board should say at a meeting of dtiiryfarmers in Hawera recently that —“Unless you send cheese that contains something else beyond water, we will never get anywhere.” This statement is such utter nonsense that it appears pertinent to ask whether the other statements which he has made since his return from the United Kingdom concerning standardised cheese are in keeping with that under review. Indeed, l would say that I can hardly conceive any statement more damning to our industry than' that attributed to the chairman of the . Control Board. There is little doubt that much of the propaganda against standardised cheese emanates fropn the blenders, who have been using the high fat content cheese from New Zealand to blend with the comparatively low .fat . content full cream cheese manufactured in Canada or the United Kingdom, or possibly skirri" milk cheese from Holland, with considerable profit to themselves. Being now deprived of the opportunity to use our high fat content cheese for this purpose, they are using precisely the same arguments in regard to the quality of our cheese as butter blenders used in regard to the quality of our butter some years since, when the moisture .content was increased from an average of 9 to 15 per cent. The question therefore arises as to whether the advocates for the abolition-of standardisation would be prepared to pay a premium for cheese manufactured from high testing milk and containing possibly 60 per cent, of fat in the -dry matter If full cream cheese is reverted over and above the price paid for full cream cheese of a .low fat standard.