44

The Quality Improvement of Creamery Butter Μ. E. Parker. Chairman

Research Committee, American Butter Institute, Chicago, III. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article-pdf/1/6/44/2392614/0022-2747_1_6_44.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021

SEDIMENT TEST vey was conducted in a number of selected The development a few years ago in laboratories of commercial organizations the laboratories of the United States Food and agricultural colleges wherein seasonal & Drug Administration of a practical and sectiopal influences were studied. method for determining the sediment in After one year’s extensive study, involv­ butter provided the basis for realizing and ing over seven hundred samples of cream unifying a national desire to improve the and more than two thousand samples of quality of the cream supplies used in the butter, it was ascertained that methods per­ manufacture of creamery butter. The re­ mitting the use of standard equipment sults of a sediment test are definite, used in the sediment testing of milk can readily understood, and subject to no be applied to cream and butter. Further­ equivocation. Therefore, when the sedi­ more, it vyas established that the milk ment test for butter was applied, the urg­ sediment standards can be applied equally ent need for immediate attention to the as satisfactorily to cream and butter. The quality of the cream supplies used in its complete report of this investigation was manufacture was generally recognized. published in the August 1937 issue of The industry was prompt to organize a the Journal of Dairy Science. The Amer­ nation-wide campaign, having as its ob­ ican Butter Institute has adopted the Con­ jective the quality improvement of its raw necticut Official Milk Sediment Stand­ cream supplies. ards of 1931 for interpreting the results The government test for the determina­ of sediment tests applied to cream and tion of sediment in butter played a most butter analyzed by its laboratory, and it important role in providing the corner­ is probable that the American Dairy stone upon which the structure of the na­ Science Association will recommend sim­ tional quality improvement endeavor rests. ilar methods for the sediment testing of The moment that the industry started to cream and butter. apply the sediment test to cream and but­ ter, it embarked on a permanent effort. DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDUSTRY The market milk industry has used the In considering the problein of quality sediment test for at least twenty years, improvement, factors other than sediment and while other methods of analysis have are obviously involved. Before we con­ since been developed which are more sider them in detail, it might be well to specific and comprehensive, the sediment discuss briefly something of the complex­ test is still being applied to their raw milk ities and thg extent of the creamery butter supplies. We have been told by leaders industry itself. in that industry that when the vigilance In thq early nineties of the 19th of sediment testing is relaxed, the sedi­ century the development of the centrifu­ ment condition of their raw milk supplies gal separator, first successfully manufac­ declines even in these days of scientific tured by Dr. DeLaval in 1886, provided enlightenment. the basis qf the factory system in this The Research Committee of the Amer­ country as his machine had reached the ican Butter Institute conducted a national stage where it would be used on the farm. survey of methods for determining the The introduction of these hand separators sediment1 in cream and butter. This sur- on the farm was slow at first, but it Journal of Milk T echnology 45 gained considerable impetus in the course It is generally known that the milk of a decade, particularly in the Middle dealer has his regular patrons whose milk Western states. The creamery butter in­ is produced under sanitary conditions, dustry was thus born with the advent of supervised either by local or state depart­ the farm separator, and the art was gradu­ ments of health or both. Most' consumers, ally revolutionized. The large centralized however, do not realize that the quality creameries secured their cream almost en­ problems of market milk supplies have tirely from milk separated on the farms been solved for that industry largely Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article-pdf/1/6/44/2392614/0022-2747_1_6_44.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 whereas the small local creameries had through the cooperative efforts of official been receiving whole milk and separating health departments in educating and re­ the cream themselves. quiring the producing farmer to observe These large centralizers, as they were practical sanitary precautions. It is obvi called, gathered their supplies by a var­ ously possible to achieve the desired re­ iety of procurement systems. Today, of sults more rapidly in a localized area the more than 4,000,000 farms in the where supervision is relatively simple. In­ United States, it is conservatively esti­ cidentally, the cost for such improvement mated that at least 2,000,000 are produc­ has been contributed in local taxes largely ing cream for buttermaking. Butter is by the consumer. The creamery butter being churned in approximately 4,500 industry does not enjoy these advantages creameries, most of which are located in of such inexpensive means or ready con­ the Middle West, where the distance of trol of quality improvement or mainte­ the producing farmer from his market nance. The major burden of such expense varies from a few to many miles (e.g., 4 must be borne by the industry itself. In miles in Minnesota to 40-50 miles in that connection, a price differential for Texas). Some creameries obtain their quality has proven of benefit in improv­ cream from a few while others draw ing raw cream supplies. The only effec­ from thousands of farms. · As the indus­ tive means the creamery has of controlling try has grown, competition has become quality is by appealing to the producer’s increasingly intense because volume is es­ pocketbook. It should be stated, how­ sential to economic operation. These are ever, that the U. S. Food & Drug Admin­ all important facts to keep in mind in istration as well as state regulatory agen­ order to obtain a comprehensive picture cies have given the industry valuable as­ of the creamery butter industry of the sistance in quality improvement. United States. The problem of quality control is a huge undertaking inasmuch as the bulk of CONTROL PROBLEM OF MILK VERSUS the cream used for buttermaking is pro­ CREAM duced in the more truly agricultural sec­ In recent years considerable attention tions, where the rural population is less has been directed toward the quality of concentrated and the farms are not only the cream used in the manufacture of more widely separated, but do not special­ creamery butter. In the urban centers of ize in dairying. It is doubtful under such our country, where the great bulk of circumstances that supervision, either by creamery butter is consumed, the tendency the industry or regulatory agencies, can has been to compare the production and ever be as intensive or effective as in the handling of raw milk for market milk sup­ case of market milk supplies. The eco­ plies with that of cream produced for but­ nomic burden alone will preclude any ter-making. By so doing, not only have the elaborate inspection service. historical and economical precepts upon which the butter industry is founded been MANUFACTURING FACTORS disregarded but the fallacy of attempting We have referred to "the art of but­ to compare a local type of business with termaking.” This is an ancient art which one operated on a substantially national has been revolutionized by the factory scale has been overlooked. system. The artisan’s skill is still of para­ 46 Q uality Improvement of Creamery Butter mount importance, and in that respect, price and the appeal of its appearance. buttermaking differs significantly from the In merchandising its product, the butter handling and processing of market milk industry is confronted with consumer which is largely subject to technological physiological and psychological prefer­ control. Today, the common experience ences which, it can ill afford to ignore in is that nothing will reveal the differences passing judgment upon the results of its of opinion among buttermakers more own labor. r readily than a discussion of the produc­ Butter produced in Kansas will have Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article-pdf/1/6/44/2392614/0022-2747_1_6_44.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 tion practices involved in preparing cream different characteristics from that churned for churning. These differences are not in Minnesota, although both will be based entirely upon the whims or caprices equally nutritious and wholesome. Sim­ of individual buttermakers, for seasonal ilarly, consumer preferences in New York and sectional influences make it necessary will differ from consumer preferences in in processing different cream supplies to New Orleans. This explains why butter vary and adjust the degree and type of scoring 90 points (or standard quality) production practices. The skill of the in one market may be accorded 92 points artisan is still a vital factor. (or extra quality) in another. It is for The areas in which climatic conditions these reasons that commercial judges in­ and density of dairy development contrib­ stinctively cpnsider the source of produc­ ute most to relative ease in the produc­ tion and the market when they grade but­ tion of the highest grades of butter are ter. They also attempt to predict keep­ comparatively small. Their output com­ ing quality in order to retain consumer prises not the largest proportion but prob­ acceptance. ably twenty-five percent of all creamery butter made in the United States. The ECONOMIC FACTORS remaining seventy-five, or possibly, eighty Economic precepts and trade customs percent is produced in areas with widely., are recognised as not being your major divergent climatic conditions and degrees concern. They are herewith presented to of dairy development. reveal the fprces with which the industry has to cope. These forces cannot be dis­ m a r k e t in g f a c t o r s regarded without bringing disaster to the Not only in the manufacture of butter industry and . to the agricultural interests is it evident that empirical methods play upon which it is based. This is no plea an important part, but in its marketing for laxity in sanitation but rather a cau­ also, they assume a paramount role. This tion that we cannot contribute to a profit­ is the common trade practice of scoring or able and stable agricultural development grading butter. Butter has been graded if we deprive the farmer of an opportun­ for years by the skilled taste senses of ity to market his cream, providing it is commercial and official judges on the ar­ clean and wholesome. In that connec­ bitrary and numerical basis of 45 points tion, the prpcurement of raw supplies in for flavor, 25 for body, 15 for salt, 10 the creamery butter industry involves sys­ for color and 5 for appearance of pack­ tems where the distance from market age. This method has now been super­ bears a direct relation to quality. In­ seded by a new official rating procedure, cidentally, this reference to "the distance described in the May issue of this Journal. from market” is used broadly and in­ Such procedure of rating merits and de­ volves not only the actual physical meas­ fects might be criticized because it does urement in miles but includes also the not take the judgment of butter quality influence of age. out of the field of human error. On the The solution of cream quality lies in other hand, in judging the quality of any the direction of cleanliness, proper cool­ food product, the consumer is guided by ing, and frequent delivery. Cleanliness the character Of its taste and aroma as applies both to milk and also to cream. well as by the attractiveness of its sales Proper cooling in a milk shed might mean Journal of M ilk T echnology 47 mechanical refrigerating equipment, but and butter by determining its amino nitro in a cream producing area it cannot mean gen content. Until we develop more ex­ much more than cooling with well water act means, we shall have to continue to plus inexpensive protection enroute to use the senses of taste and smell. market. Proper delivery in a milk shed During the past two years, the Research means daily pick-up, whereas in a cream Committee of the American Butter Insti­ producing area it means less frequent de­ tute has studied various methods of livery. Therefore, when these relative analyzing butter and related products. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article-pdf/1/6/44/2392614/0022-2747_1_6_44.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 terms are analyzed, they are seen to have After thorough investigation, it was de­ quite a different meaning. Cream pre­ cided to prepare a manual of laboratory pared on the farm is bound to reach a methods to be available to all interested creamery with a varying development of parties. This manual contains the acidity, dependant upon seasonal and sec­ methods used by the laboratory of the tional influences as well as its "distance American Butter Institute. (Editor: This from market.” manual can be purchased from the Amer­ ican Butter Institute, Chicago, 111. Price n e e d f o r n e w t e s t $1.00.) What the industry needs now is some test as relatively simple as the acidity test CHARACTER OF CONTROL PROBLEM or the Babcock test that will detect cream The quality improvement of creamery of inferior quality. Many investigators butter is a permanent responsibility which have attempted to correlate- amino nitro­ the industry and health officials both must gen content with the quality of cream and recognize and share. The ultimate goal its resulting butter, but without significant of clean, cool cream delivered frequently success. Possibly one of the reasons for has not yet been fully realized, although failure is found in the results of recent appreciable progress has been made dur­ studies of the ammonia production in ing recent years. Changing the habits of milk conducted by Perkins of the Ohio at least 2,000,000 farmers is quite a task. State University. While the amount Possibly some may feel that while prog­ of ammonia in fresh milk is usually quite ress has been gradual, it has still been small, bacterial growth probably accounts far too slow. Yet any health official largely for its development. What is who has been engaged in the quality im­ more important, the bacterial species cap­ provement of market milk supplies for able of producing the greater amounts of the past twenty years will recognize that ammonia is Streptococcus lactis. This or­ history is repeating itself. The creamery ganism is always present in overwhelming butter industry is now at the stage of de­ numbers in sour cream, and generally is velopment that the market milk industry considered to be a retarding influence to held in the early days of its quality im­ contaminants which might possess pro­ provement. Furthermore, there is the con­ teolytic properties. In fact, contrary to the trast between a purely local type of busi­ generally accepted idea, the liquefying ness and one that is national in scope type of bacteria do not begin to produce and operation. This will require differ­ ammonia as effectively as Streptococcus ences in the methods for the effective and lactis. Consequently we cannot expect lasting quality improvement of creamery much aid in detecting quality in cream butter.