The time during which cheese should be held at the factory depends on the variety. Some are shipped as soon as made, including those cheeses with sour-milk flavor only. Others have to be cured in the factory from six to eight weeks. Cheeses in paper or tin-foil should be neatly wrapped and carefully put in the boxes. The box of cheese should be neat, clean and attractive. Cheeses not wrapped should have a firm rind to hold them in shape. The boxes should be clean and the weight of cheese neatly and plainly marked. In the case of Cheddar cheese, it may be paraffined at the factory, but if not, this is usually done at the cold storage of the jobber. The cheeses usually have some time to cure or ripen while being handled by the various dealers.
331. Distribution of price.—The final selling price of cheese is a composite of all the changes that have gone before; or conversely, the farmer, the maker, the carrier and the distributors (wholesale, jobbing and retail dealers) must all be paid from the final price of the product. A study of this problem in Wisconsin has been made by Hibbard, and Hobson.[139] The general facts as determined for Wisconsin have fairly wide application to the manufacture and sale of cheese.
Economic success in handling cheese is dependent on proper provision for the sale of the product. Where the output is small, a personal market can be created and maintained. This eliminates all profits intervening between the maker and the retailer. If the business reaches a volume beyond the possibilities of direct sale to the retailer, some selling organization is necessary. Where the number of producers is great and the selling machinery is well organized, the cheese factory becomes a producer of a commodity which is turned over to existing selling agencies. This condition is well established for Cheddar, Swiss, Brick and Limburger cheese. The soft cheeses other than Limburger have thus far been handled principally by large companies, each of which has developed an expensive selling organization. A study of the map ([Fig. 65]) shows how the cheese industry is localized in particular sections of certain states. Individual factories have maintained themselves in widely separated places. This localization is due to the geographical conditions which make certain regions specially adapted to dairying, modified by the proximity to markets for milk as milk. There are many regions, however, well adapted to cheese production in which there is no development of the industry at present. New developments are now taking place in the mountain areas of the South, notably North Carolina and adjacent states, and in several centers of the western mountain states. Many other areas should develop the making of cheese in some form.
The actual costs of making and selling cheese were found by the Wisconsin investigators to vary approximately as follows: (1) cost of making, 1.2 to 1.75 cents; (2) storage, ⅟8 cent a pound a month, or ⅜ to ½ cent for the season; (3) transportation to distant points, $.20 to $2.50 for 100 pounds according to distance; (4) the local dealer, about 1 cent a pound; (5) the wholesale dealer, 2 cents; (6) the jobber or broker who occasionally intervenes, about ⅛ to ¼ cent; and the retailer, 5.5 to 9 cents. The entire cost of selling at the time this investigation was made represented about one-half of the retail price of the cheese. The producer of milk received the other half of that price.
332. Standards.—Legal standards in the United States are thus far largely based on the specifications of American Cheddar. In so far as they are applied to other products, they operate merely to prevent or reduce the use of skimmed-milk. The analyses and limits proposed in the discussion of varieties or groups in this book represent the range of composition actually known to be associated with cheeses of typical quality. Efforts are now being made to establish definitions and standards of composition which will limit the use of cheese names to products conforming to the requirements for such varieties. Practically the only federal requirement thus far enforced in the United States is that 50 per cent of the water-free substance of the cheese must be milk-fat. Various states have local requirements but most of them include the federal rule as to fat. New York and Wisconsin now restrict the amount of water in Cheddar cheese to 40 per cent. Most states have laws regulating the manufacture and sale of skimmed-milk cheese.
333. Laws relating to cheese marketing.—A cheese of foreign origin if made in this country must be branded to show that it is not imported. For example, Camembert made in America is labeled Domestic Camembert. Some manufacturers call it Camembert type of cheese. The same applies to other varieties of foreign cheese. If a variety is made under a trade-marked name, this prevents any other manufacturer from using that name. For example, a concern may make "Philadelphia" cream cheese; other concerns may make cream cheese, but they must call it by some other name.
The committee on definitions and standards for the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists has now undertaken to define the proper use of type names. This is intended to determine the proper limits of composition of cheeses in each variety and such essentials of physical identification as will insure the proper use of these names.
Certain states have laws which relate to the branding of the cheese to denote quality. If the cheese is made from whole milk, a brand may be applied to show this fact. This is usually called the state brand. If made from skimmed-milk, the cheese must be branded to show this. The following[140] illustrate the laws relating to the state brand and skimmed-milk cheese:
Sec. 48. Manufacturer's brand of cheese. "Every manufacturer of whole-milk cheese may put a brand or label upon such cheese indicating 'whole-milk cheese' and the date of the month and year when made; and no person shall use such a brand or label upon any cheese made from milk from which any of the cream has been taken. The Commissioner of Agriculture shall procure and issue to the cheese manufacturers of the state, on proper application therefor, and under such regulations as to the custody and use thereof as he may prescribe, a uniform stencil brand or labels bearing a suitable device or motto, and the words 'New York state whole-milk cheese.' Every such brand or label shall be used upon the outside of the cheese and shall bear a different number for each separate factory. The commissioner shall keep a book, in which shall be registered the name, location and number of each manufactory using the brands or labels, and the name or names of the persons at each manufactory authorized to use the same. No such brand or labels shall be used upon any other than whole-milk cheese or packages containing the same. (As amended by chapter 207 of the Laws of 1910.)
Sec. 49. Use of false brand prohibited; branding of skim-milk cheese regulated. No person shall offer, sell or expose for sale, in any package, butter or cheese which is falsely branded or labeled. No person shall sell, offer or expose for sale cheese commonly known as Cheddar cheese made from skimmed or partially skimmed milk unless the same is branded to show that it is skim-milk cheese. All such cheese so sold, offered or exposed for sale shall be branded with the words 'skim-milk cheese,' or if such cheese contains thirteen per centum of milk fat or over, it may be branded 'medium skim-milk cheese,' or if it contains eighteen per centum of milk fat or over, it may be branded 'special skim-milk cheese.' Such branding shall be upon the sides of both the cheese and the container. The branding herein provided shall be in block letters at least one-half an inch square. (As amended by chapter 456 of the Laws of 1913.)"