THE IMPORTANCE OF RICH CREAM.

Shannon News, 16 June 1925, Page 1

THE IMPORTANCE OF RICH CREAM.

• The most important factor in a buttei'i factory is probably the richness of the cream, and it has direct bearing upon all three of the other factors. Creamery proprietors demand cream testing between 30 per cent, and 45 per cent, butterfat for four important reasons:

(1)- Rich cream does not sour or deteriorate as quickly as thin cream, for there is a smaller percentage of milk in the former to provide food and/ sustenance

for bacteria. (2) Rich cream means a smaller amount of cream to be taken care of; hence it has more likely to receive thorough cooling. The smaller amount is easier to

handle and cheaper to transport. (3) Rich cream can be pasteurised with less loss of butterfat. because in pasteurising sour cream the smallest fat globules become imprisoned in the coagulated curd, and in low-testing cream the loss of this fat in the buttermay run as high as 1£ per cent, of butterfat. But if richer cream is used there will be less buttermilk, although the mechanical loss may be the same, though in all probability it will be lower. Thus the total loss of butterfat in the buttermilk is less in the case of the rich cream than it is in the case of the thinner cream. (4) Rich cream moans a largo output without increasing the plant of working costs, and thus the creamery can afford to pay higher prices for the richer article than for the inferior article, judged on this basis.

The actual fat test of cream from time to time does not depend entirely on the separator, and the farmer mav feel that there are errors in testing when he perceives that the richness of his cream is fluctuating. This, however, may be due to many causes which it is not intended to treat here. Most creameries employ qualified testers, and it would not be worth while to endeavour to cheat the farmer on this score, and the cause of fluctuation must be sought elsewhere.