DEHYDRATED MEAT.

Evening Star, Issue 24284, 27 August 1942, Page 4

DEHYDRATED MEAT.

Research, involving vigorous action by British scientists, has unfolded to a wondering world the phenomenon “of dehydrated meat. This method of reducing carcases to a minimum bulk as a means of economising in shipping space, is hailed as holding promise of remarkable success. Money and time have been spent in New Zealand investigating meat dehydration on a modified scale. The experiments are to be developed further, and a programme of production of 100 tons a month established in the North Island. .It is some months since we commented on the wide possibilities the dried meat market held, as indicated by the Ministry of Food’s initial 20,000-ton order. ’ That figure is unimpressive to the lay mind, hut in dehydration the 75 per cent, water; content in meat is reduced to 3 per cent., and one pound of the treated product has equal nutritive value to 5£ pounds of fresh meat. What is more important, the product in a desiccated state can be packed in cans and drums, and shipped as ordinary cargo without refrigeration. The meat capacity of food ships to England when laden with this dehydrated cargo is said to be increased ten times; in other words, one ship does the work of ten': Once properly established, the industry will bo of permanent value. It opens -up the possibility of meat markets in such places as India, tho East, and the Continent, where refrigerating facilities arc meagre. It encourages intensive farming development, and could tend to be the stabilising price factor of export meat, for all typos of healthy animals—young and old—are used. .Federal authorities in Australia have visions of development to the extent of exporting ton million dehydrated mutton carcases annually, and New Zealand need not lag behind the Commonwealth.