PART-SKIMMED CHEESE.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1922, Page 2

PART-SKIMMED CHEESE.

EXPERIMENTS AT HAWERA. A DANGER SUGGESTED. fe-u .. . v A discussion on what is known as part-skimmed cheese took place av Thursday’s conference of the Fanners’ Union at Inglewood. A remit was before the conference proposing “that tins conference is of the opinion that the Dairy Division should exercise the greatest caution in allowing £be export of part-skimmed cheese, as it may have a very prejudicial effect upon the sale of the Dominion’s export' of .’full* cream cheese.” J / Mr. Gowith, who introduced the. remit on behalf of the Hawera branch, of the union, said New Zealand ■ had built up a reputation for a good article in exporting cheese to the Old Country, and they should be careful to : do nothing to prejudice it, He. waft afraid the export of part-skimmed cheese would have a detrimental effect upon the industry. Mr. J. Swindlehurst said part-sklin-med cheese was a wholesome food. Mr. J. A. Kurth said a law as Suggested in the remit was already in. force, and the remit read as a reflection on the Dairy Division. Mr. F. Mills pointed out that he believed that some part-skimmed cheese was being exported at the present time. Mr. D. L. A. Astbury said that eVery factory that made cheese was placed in the position, towards the end of, the season, of receiving milk with a higner butter-fat content than in the earlier stages of the season. Much of this high percentage of fat was wasted at present. If the milk could be partsknnmed good cheese could still be made at the end, of the season, and the surplus fat could be made into butter. He saw no reason why experiments along these lines should not be tried, providing that the part-skimmed cheese were labelled as such and sold on their merits. Factory managers had told him that it would be better if they could get rid of some of the surplus fat towards the end of the season. Mr. R. Dunn said there was a risk, if the practice were allowed in factories that made both kinds of cheese, of not securing proper supervision, and it would be impossible to tell where the skimming eeased. He had heard that experiments with part-skimmed cheeee in America had spoiled that country’s cheese export trade. Mr. E. Maxwell agreed that there was a danger, as there would be no proper check once the practice was adopted. The Hawera Dairy Company, which is at present experimenting with partskimmed cheese, was represented by Messrs. Johnstone and Laurence. Mr. Johnstone said the remit under discussion affected the Hawera Company, which had the consent of the Government to experiment. Their first shipment of part-skimmed cheese had returned an encouraging profit over ordinary cheese. He was not prepared to disclose the proportion of the skimming at present. The company had not yet fixed a standard content, but was experimenting on different. proportions. The cheese went on the market branded as part-skimmed, and was sold on its merits, and so he did not see how this could injure the ordinary cheese market. It was not so long since whey butter had been condemned, but it was now generally accepted. He hoped it would be the same with partskimmed cheese.

Mr. Laurence presented grade notes of part-skimmed cheese sold by the Hawera Company, showing a very high standard of make. He did not believe there was anyone in the room who could tell the difference between the two articles, and to prove this he offered to submit samples, but the conference had not the time to test these. Mr. Laurence wanted to see the thing fiven a good chance before it was conemned. It would save a great deal of waste at present going on. The standard the Hawera Company had been experimenting on was to skim down to a test of between 2 and 3. On being put to the conference the remit was carried.