STANDARDISED CHEESE

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18139, 2 October 1930, Page 6

STANDARDISED CHEESE

BENEFICIAL TO INDUSTRY.

HARMFUL PROPAGANDA.

MR PARLANE SPEAKS OUT. Intervieweif by a Waikato Times reporter with reference to the cable said to have been sent from London to the effect that British official contracts for the supply of cheese stipulate that this must be full cream, Mr C. J. Parlane, general manager of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd., said that the cheese producers in New Zealand need not be in any way'disturbed by the information conveyed in the cable referred to, for pbviously, if a quantity of what was termed “ full cream ” cheese was purchased under contract, this did not in any way reduce the amount of cheese required to meet the market requirements. He said that much of the propaganda at present appearing in the press in regard to standardised cheese, which our own foolish regulations compelled us to specially brand as an inferior article, no doubt emanated from the grinders, or blenders, who had hitherto used substantial quantities of New Zealand’s high fat content cheese for blending with the comparatively low fat content “ full cream ” cheese manufactured in Canada and the United Kingdom, or possibly skim milk cheese from Holland, with considerable profit to themselves. Deprived of these profits the grinders were now using precisely the same arguments in regard to our cheese that the blenders used in regard to our butter when we decided some years since, to increase the moisture content from an average of approximately 9 to 15 per cent., the claim then being that we had ruined the quality.

Refused to be Stampeded. “On that occasion, like the present," added Mr Parlane, “ persons in responsible positions in the dairy industry in New Zealand became panicky, and repeatedly warned the producers that they were running the industry on to the rocks. Notwithstanding this, however, the producers refused to be stampeded, with the result that they firmly established their future policy, and thereby brought into New Zealand hundreds of thousands of pounds that would otherwise have gone into the pockets of the butter blenders in the United Kingdom. “ It remains to be seen whether the cheese producers are going to stand firm on the • policy they have decided upon, at least until such time as there is some evidence that such a policy is detrimentally affecting their industry.” ' , Mr Parlane said that his company had kept in very close touch with the position in London, but up to the present had not one tittle of evidence that the standardisation of milk for cheese-making was in any way responsible for the difficulties that were being experienced in regard to the quality of our cheese, whilst on the other hand, a point that did very materially affect the suppliers to his own company’s cheese factories, was the fact that their butterfat payments were during last season increased on an average by about id per lb butterfat over and above what they would have received had full cream cheese been manufactured. Gross Exaggeration. Mr Parlane said he was firmly of the opinion that'much of the comment appearing in the press concerning the quality of our cheese was gross exaggeration, and not one bit helpful to the industry. Admittedly, he, said there was room for improvement in ■the quality of our cheese, but the difficulties in this respect were not insurmountable,' and by concentration of effort would be overcome. His company, he stated, was leaving no stone unturned to this end, and had, indeed, gone the length of offering to the Dairy Division, under certain conditions, the use of one of its factories for a full season, or seasons if necessary, in order that experiments might be carried out under average working conditions. Unfortunately, however, the department had not yet seen its way clear to accept this offer. “ The plain fact remains, however,” he added, “that the only cheese available to the British consumer to-day, with a guaranteed minimum fat conten't of 50 per cent, in the dry matter, is the standardised article produced in New Zealand, and it does appear ridiculous that such cheese must be specially branded while an inferior food product containing as low as 45 per cent, of fat in the dry matter is allowed to be sold as full cream, cheese, and used to prejudice what is' really a higher grade article.”