The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-03-23
BUTTER PACKAGES
UNDER DISCUSSION
State Dairy and Food Com.
missioner Says Public Is
Being Deceived.

Willard Hansen, state dairy and food
commissioner, who up to the present
time has taken no part in the agitation
against the fifteeu-ounce butter pack
ages other than TO point out that full
pounds are not being packed. as iii other
cities. will this week get into the fight
The reason for his inactivity has been
that the fiftcen-ounce buttcr packages
are perfectly legal when the packages
arc marked--as they generally arc
fifteen ounces. What has caused the
commissioner TO roll up his sleeves and
prepare to make himself heard, is the
fact that the butter men are giving out,
as be declares, a wrong impression. He
says that while they comply with the
law in marking their butter fifteen
ounces, they are deceiving the people by
making them think that the butter pack
ages really contain pound when
packed, but shrink only slight amount
and are therefore really pounds. He
added;
Practically all the butter pack
ages sold in Salt Lake weigh about
1914 ounces each, and we have
found many cases where it was cut
TO weigh only fifteen ounces, and
as q result Of slight shripkage,
weighed after being on the market
less than the amount stamped on
the package. This latter case was
a violation of the law and we acted
on IT, but most of the butter men
are too shrewd to take a chance like
that, so they cut the butter so close
that with shrlnkage it weighs a
slight bit more than fifteen ounces.
This department cannot demand a.
full pound package, as the attor-
ney general has held that if butter
is stamped as weighing fifteen
ounces, less than a pound may be
sold. But we will insist that the
ing that the butter really weighs
almost pound shall cease, for that
is not true except in few widely
scattered instances
Mr.. Hansen and his deputies declare
that when the butter dealers and cream
cry men buy cream with which to make
butter, they pay for it by the number
of pounds of butter fat. One hundred
pounds of butter fat, containing no salt
or water, will make, they declare, at
least 120 pounds of sixteen ounce but
ter. Not contented with the margin
Of twenty pounds on the purchase as
secured for the butter after manufac
ture, they make this up into fifteen
ounce packages which makes an addi
tional eight pounds at the fifteen ounce
rate, Mr.. Hansen says. He also says
that where the butter itself is pur-
chased, IT is bought by the pound in
bulk, and is cut so that one ounce is
secured free from every pound,
Commissioner Hansen says there is
no doubt that large profits are being
made as a result OF this system, and he
has been told that one small firm has
made n net profit OF 5000 month more
than their profits before the fifteen
ounce butter became general.
Outlining the history Of short wei ght
butter. Mr.. Hansen says that all the
crcameries entered into an agreement
with the department on January u,
1912. to pack full pounds of butter, and
they were told that the department
would stand for slight shrinkage. He
says they took advantage Of this latter
clause, and within thirty days after the
agreement the butter Of nearly all
brands weighed from one-quarter TO one
half ounce short. Prosecutions were be-
gun on every hand, and then the butter
companies issued defiance of the de.
partment and commenced labelling their
butter with fifteen ounce stamps.