REPORT ON "BUTTER" FROM COAL

Chronicle (Levin), 2 August 1947, Page 7

REPORT ON "BUTTER" FROM COAL

Reports of overseas investigations into the food value and cost of production of synthetic fats made in wartime Germany from petroleum obtained from coal, indicate that tlie advances made do not yet constitute a threat to the natural fats industries. A sample of the synthetic fats has been examined by the New Zealand Dairy Research ' Institute at Massey "Jollege. Results of that examination, ioupled with other information from iverseas reports, are deseribed by Dr. F. II. McDowall in the latest news circular issued by the institute. ' ' These synthetic fats were produced from fattv aeids' obtained by blowing air at a iiigh temperature through a eertain fraction of the petroleum prodocts obtained in some of the German eoal earbonisation plants for manufaeture of petrol from coal," states Dr. McDowall. "The fatty acids were fractionated in order to give those whieli, when combined with glycerine to give a product simiiar in nature to natural fats, would yield a fat with the eorrect melting point, so that it would melt in tlie mouth without giving an iiupression of greasiness. "In this respect the Germans were very successful. • The product wliich was examined at the institute had a melting point almost identical with that of New Zealand butterfat, but the palatability of the fat is still open to question, and the cost has not yet been reduced to the stage of economic competition witli natural fats. During the A-ar, not more than 2000 tons were proluced annually and at a cost of £177 per ton. ('The acceptabilitv of the synthetic t'ats from the dietetic point of v-iew is still in doubt. Two German medical research workcrs, Thomas and Weitzel, have recentlv published an article indicating that tlie structural complexity of the synthetic fats renders tliem less easilv digestible tlian tlie simpler natural fats, and they obtained evidencp of the occurrence of fat "slags" in the body when the synthetic fats were ingested. In otlier words, there were portions of the fat which the body could not properly dispose of. "While no one can predict with any certaintv what will be the future developments in tlie svntliesis of food fats, Ihe indications are tliat these prosent advances are not suffieient to make the artificial product a threat to the natural fats industries."