CHEESE STORAGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 137, 10 May 1940, Page 10

CHEESE STORAGE.

CONTROL OF HUMIDITY. An addiess on cheese storage was given to those attending the dairy factory managers' week at Massey College yesterday, by Dr. T. R. Vernon. "From the dawn of history,” said Dr. Vernon, “mankind has used cheese for food. The manufacture of choose was a convenient method of storing milk. Today we are endeavouring to find tho best method of storing cheese. “The successful storage of most foodstuffs is usually a matter of temperature, and there is no need to emphasise the value of refrigeration to New Zealand. To point of fact, we can safely say that tho dairy industry in New Zealand is based upon i ctrigeration. There are, however, certain foodstuffs the successful storage of which is more complicated. “In New Zealand to-day there is a serious gap in the story of our cheese from manufacture to consumer. Great pains are taken to make good cheese, every care is taken to carry that cheese overseas under the host possible conditions, but for 14 days while the cheese is being cured on the factory shelves there is a complete lack of control. During this important period the cheese is subject to the violent fluctuations of temperature and humidity that characterise one unpredictable climate. The lack of control in cheese curing rooms has far-reaching effects. It. is so important that in many cases tho condition of tne curing room dictates tho method of manufacture and determines the quality of the product. One of the troubles arising from uncontrolled curing' rooms is the development of ‘mould.’ While there are as many ways of killing moulds as there are of killing cals, certain methods are only applicable to certain problems. Aloulds arc always associated with dampness, and the musty smell of damp rooms is usually the result of mould growth. When dry conditions prevail moulds do not grow. Tho suggestion is, therefore, control humidity and you control mouldiness.” Dr. Vernon then discussed in some detail what was meant by the term humidity and illustrated by lantern slides and by a variety of instruments how t.lio humidity of tho atmosphere was measured. Recent developments in air conditioning had made the control of temperature and humidity not only automatic but reasonably cheap. A local factory had been progressive enough to instal such a plant, and during the past season the Dairy Research Institute had conducted a comprehensive experiment to determine the value of ttmm controlled conditions.

Charts and graphs of curing -room conditions showed clearly the violent fluctuations that occurred in uncontrolled rooms, and the comparison with the smooth steady graphs of the controlled room was striking. Under controlled conditions the cheese did not develop mould. Controlled humidity seemed definitely to be tho answer to the “mould” problem. Cheese stored under controlled conditions showed smaller losses in weight than did cheese stored in an uncontrolled room. Ili hot, dry summers the loss in weight in uninsulated and uncontrolled rooms is often excessive. Generally speaking, the advantage to be obtained from controlled temperature and humidity were considerable. Controlled curing would not make a bad cheese good but it could be safely said that it would prevent a good cheese from deterioration. , “The control of temperature and humidity is a marked step forward in cheese curing and in P-eee days of war it is of the utmost importance that the quality of New Zealand cheese should be of the highest. Our cheese quality should not bo jeopardised by uncontro'led conditions in the curing room," Dr. Vernon concluded.