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Relation of Fats to Moistuee Content of Butter. 



By O. F. Hunziker. 



IMPORTANCE OF MOISTURE CONTENT OF BUTTER. 



The two principal constituents of butter are the fats and the water. 

 The average sample of butter contains about 83.5 per cent fats and 13.5 

 per cent water ; the remainder beiug made up of salt, curd, ash, sugar 

 and acid. 



The more water butter contains the lower is its per cent of fats, and 

 the more butter can, therefore, be made from a given amount of fats. 

 It did not take the alert butter maker, the creamery operator, the com- 

 mercial man very long to appreciate the financial significance of this fact. 

 In many instances the process of butter making was so modified as to 

 increase the per cent of moisture to the extent where as high as 130 to 

 150 pounds of butter were made from 100 pounds of fats, while under 

 normal conditions 100 pounds of fats yield between 116 to 122 pounds of 

 butter. The result was that, up to a few years ago, the American mar- 

 kets were flooded with water-soaked butter. 



Butter containing an excess of moisture is inferior in quality; its 

 keeping quality is poor and its food value is low. So, in order to save the 

 butter industry of the country from certain ruin and to protect the con- 

 sumer from buying his drinking water in the form of water-soaked butter, 

 a law was passed by act of Congress in 1902 and revised in 1904, classify- 

 ing as adulterated butter all butter containing 16 per cent or more of 

 water and placing a fine of 10 cents per pound of butter and a special tax 

 of $50 per month on the manufacturer of adulterated butter. 



When this law was put in force by the Internal Revenue Department 

 it was found that, in certain localities and at certain seasons of- the year 

 butter makers experienced difficulties in keeping the moisture content 

 below the legal maximum of 16 per cent, and the question naturally arose 

 as to the practicability and justice of this standard and as to the ad- 

 visability of modifying it. 



