Water in Butter.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 91, 17 July 1908, Page 4

Water in Butter.

Any butter that contains over I.S per cent, of water, is now by law regarded as not genuine, until the contrary is proved. This means that any'farmer (or his wife) who makes butter for sale, is liable to be hauled up before the magistrates if his butter at any time has been found to contain an excess of moisture. The matter is therefore worth looking into. Some experiments at the Leeds College Farm show that, after all, 15 per cent, is a pretty wide and safe margin, for, while out of some hundreds of samples tested, about 5 per cent, were over this figure, the remaining 95 P er cenr - were under it, and it is pointed out that a limit of 15 per cent, of water ought very rarely to be exceeded. The whole thing, indeed, is a question of manipulation or manufacture, for while we cannot control the composition of milk (a natural product) wc can quite well control that of butter, because it is a manufactured product. The Leeds experimenters find that the following factors affect the water content of the butter:—Size of the grains ; temperature ; temperature of washing water ; use of salt; interval between working, or between salting and working; while the working itself is the chief factor in regulating the proportion of water. The summary of the whole matter is, that if people make their butter properly, there will never be more than 15. per cent, water in it, and if they have more than this they should take lessons in the art of butter making.