PACKING BUTTER 367 



food, and their presence in butter is in violation of the Federal 

 Pure Food Act of 1906. Their use for treatment of tubs and liners 

 may be justifiable as a means to stamp out an epidemic of mold 

 in butter, but their continued use cannot be recommended and 

 in any event the tubs after treatment should be rinsed with 

 clean water or distilled water before packing. 



Within the past decade the practice of brine-soaking the 

 tubs has been superseded in a great many creameries by the 

 more efficient treatment of paraffining them. The tubs should 

 be paraffined whenever facilities permit. Proper paraffining obvi- 

 ates the temptation of using antiseptics as far as the tub as 

 a source of mold in butter is concerned. 



When butter is packed in paraffined tubs, it is unnecessary 

 to soak the tubs in water or brine, in fact it is preferable not to, 

 because the unsoaked tubs present a much more attractive ap- 

 pearance. The old practice of soaking butter tubs in water 

 prior to packing had for its purpose to load the wood with suf- 

 ficient wajter to minimize the absorption by the tub of moisture 

 contained in the butter, which caused a considerable shrink- 

 age in net weight. A properly paraffined tub is impervious to 

 water and therefore is incapable of taking up moisture from the 

 butter. If the tubs are not soaked in water the creamery should 

 always put the tare on the tub. The unsoaked tub weighs from 

 1 to 2 pounds less than the soaked tub. Without determination 

 of the tare weight, this difference will be lost to the creamery. 



Soaking in water or brine before paraffining is desirable, 

 however, in the case of tubs the staves and bottoms of which 

 have shrunk to the point where a tight tub can not be secured 

 and in order to hold the tub together. 



Before paraffining, the tubs should be steamed out thorough- 

 ly until they are hot and dry. This opens the pores and permits 

 the hot paraffine to penetrate. If they are paraffined while wet 

 the paraffine will not penetrate, it merely sticks to the surface 

 and is prone to peel off. If they are cold the paraffine cools 

 before it has an opportunity to fill the pores, it fails to spread, 

 in a thin, smooth and uniform layer and tends to crack. 



The paraffine should be applied in such a way that it will 

 coat the inside of the tub in the form of a thin film, filling the 



