EXPORTED BUTTER.

Shannon News, 3 April 1925, Page 4

EXPORTED BUTTER.

SHOUIiD IT BE'"PIIESERVJ2D"? GIPPSLAND FACTORY'S EXPERIENCE. On the subject of preservatives in food, the following statement is contained in a letter received by Mr. G. E. P. Philp.ots from the manager of a butter factory in Gippsland: — "Up to the present stage I have not advocated the complete abolition of preservatives in butter. For the last four or five years, however, the bulk of our butter has been made without preservatives. Notwithstanding the statement made by many experts that butter cannot be successfully marketed without preservatives, it is during those years that we have built up a very large trade both in Victoria and Western Australia.

"I have quite a number of letters telegrams, etc., from our Western Australian distrbutors complimenting up on the quality of the butter, and repeatedly stating that the only fault to find is that they are not getting enough of it. Further than this, we have received excellent reports of butter exported to England —one large consignment during the last year was stored in Melbourne for two months before being exported —and the reports of this butter at the London end stated that, it was equal to any of those butters on the same shipment containing preservatives. ...

"It is an offence under the Dairy Supervision Act for dairymen to add preservatives to their cream, the reason for this being that it hides faults and.prevents the factory ascertaining the true grade of the cream itself. Surely the same argument should apply to butter, where the addition of preservatives only holds up the faults for a time, and takes away the Incentive for closer grading and improvement in the quality of the cream. My attitude is that if effective pasturisation is carried out, and the cream is in the condition it should be when received at the factory, then preservatives should be quite unnecessary."