GOOD SOUND BUTTER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 103, 19 April 1876, Page 4

GOOD SOUND BUTTER.

(New Zealand Herald.') The adulteration of the food we eat and the liquids we drink has been the subject of Bpecial, and to some extent, unsatisfactory legislation. A recent raid upon: our milkmen by the police showed, according to the tests made by our Provincial Analyst, that the " pure " milk sold by the vendors was adulterated by " pure" water, varying to the extent of from 10 to 40 per cent. Much of the liquor retailed here, there is reason to believe, is similarly " doctored" by more noxious additions than water. But neither our milkmen nor our publicans have succeeded in elevating adulteration, to the dignity of a science, as appears to have been done by an eminent Scotch firm ~~, H. ;B. Rem mera and Co., Hope-rStreet, Glasgow, in the matter of "repacking and improving butter." The Glasgow News has been, of late, investigating the food supply of the Glasgoweghns, and it was.during the fulfilment of that task by its special commissioner that that gentleman lighted oh the " operations "of H. B. Remmers and Co. Iri a trade circular the firm frankly explained that the process consisted mainly of washing, re-salting, and coloring the butter. They stated that they were enabled to take out any taste of tallow, grease, and 'also bad smells, except a bitter, taste, which can only be partially removed." Any kind of old butter could be made suitable for table use again; and they undertook to render decomposed butter — generally used as wheel; grease — fit for human consumption, to reconvert it into what is technically known as "lumps," properly colored, and wrapped in muslin for any given market. The proprietors of tbe Glasgow paper before named decided to test the " converting " process of the firm, and their special Commissioner forwarded the following promising specimen for treatment : — " A Coleraine butt of grease butter, sold for lubricating purposes, was purchased with the view of ascertaining to what extent the cleansing and chemical treatment of tbe substance could be made apparent, there was incorporated with the grease butter a small quantity of Russian tallow, some of wbich had passed through the Printing - office machinery, aud had absorbed particles of blacklead and mineral oxides, from contact with the bearings of the shafting. There was also incorporated with it a common fallow candle, from which tbe wick, had been removed. Tbe compound and the tallow candle were carefully melted into the grease-butter, and notwithstanding the offensive character of these addition?, the butter was so decomposed as completely to disguise them. A sample of the grease-butter as purchased, a sample of the stuff when mixed with the dirty Russian tallow, and a third sample of the Russian tallow itself, were taken and submitted to the City Analyst for report." The Analyst reported as was anticipated, that all three samples were unfit for human food The firkin was then forwarded to Messrs Remmers and Co., accompanied by a request that the samples be turned into "lumps of a bright yellow color, for sale in the English market, and with a stubble grass smell." The buiter was returned in due couree " converted." It was forwarded to the Analyst, and by him submitted to tbe microscopic tests. He reported that the " improving process" had produced very fair results, but the coloring matter had been used too lavishly. So remarkable was tbe chauge in the whole composition that it would scarcely have been possible to identify the samples, but for the presence of the mineral particles. It subsequently transpired that at the Leith works of Messrs Remmers and Co., no less than 3,920 lbs of " putrid matter, and rancid machine grea3e " is daily " converted " into "butter with a stubble grass smell," — the greater portion of which is* consumed, not by the poorer, but by the middle classes.