The chemical, physical and organoleptic characteristics of commercially produced lard and the costs of producing lard by the open kettle, prime steam and dry rendering methods were examined in this study.

It was observed that several factors may be responsible for variations in characteristics of lard and in costs of rendering lard.

In general, plants using the open kettle rendering method were small plants operating at small volumes of production and using simple processing techniques. These plants were operated at a fraction of their capacity.

The prime steam method of rendering lard was used by plants which produced large quantities of lard, used elaborate processing methods and operated at about 50 percent of their lard rendering capacity.

Plants using the dry rendering method operated at about 60 percent of capacity. Their average annual production was somewhat less than that for plants using the prime steam rendering method. Several processing steps were involved in producing lard by the dry rendering method.

These variations in volumes of production, complexity of processing procedures and rendering capacities were associated with the methods of rendering the lard considered in this study. Such factors complicate the evaluation of the relationships between methods of rendering, costs of rendering and characteristics of lard produced.