NEW ZEALAND LAMB

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 278, 19 July 1932, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND LAMB

(Press Assn. —

IMPROVED COVERINGS NEEDED TO PRESERVE THE QUALITY.

-By Telegraph — Copyright)

LONDON, Monday. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Iiesearch has issued a report on the freezing, storage and tiansport of New Zealand lamb by Doctors E. Griffiths and J. R. Vickery and Mr. R. R. Haddow, wl-o spent four months surveying the trade. They covered 23,000 miles, visited 18 freezing works, and followed 800 carcases of" lamb through avery link of the chain from the abatLoir in New Zealand to Smithfield. Tho report deals principally with the question of how to preserve the bloom (or freshly-killed appearance) of the meat and the prevention of ioss by evaporation of water from the carcase experienced under the present system of cooling, freezing, transport and storage. The report says a good deal of the bloom must necessarily be lost; to preserve the freshly-killed appearance of the carcases, evaporation must be considerably reduced. The rnost feasible means of doing this appeai's to be by covering the carcases as ouickly as possible with bags impeimeable to water vapour. The bags should be odourless and suf-ficic-ntly strong to withstand handling, and the cost should compare with that of the usual stockinette wrap, but should not be such as to cancel the monetary advantages gain•ed by the lower losses of weight and bloom. Threo types of bags were tested, but none v/as suitable, and the ideal Lag has still to be evolved.