LOOK AFTER MILK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 22, 30 April 1947, Page 6

LOOK AFTER MILK

Riboflavin, or Vitamin 82, is a part of the Vitamin B complex that is essential for health. The good sources of this vitamin- are liver and kidney, yeast and milk. Poorer sources are eggs, meat, green vegetables and whole grain cereals. Milk is the common source that keeps us right for this vitamin. In fact, one pint of milk furnishes an adult with half his daily requirements. There is however, often a nigger in the woodpile, and there is one connected with the question of riboflavin in milk. It is light—sunlight or daylight. These rapidly destroy this vitamin in milk.

Milk left standing at the gate or doorstep exposed to light is sub* ject to serious reduction of riboflavin. In one experiment bottled milk that was bathed for one to two hours in spring sunshine lost approximately 30 per cent, in one hour and 60 per cent, in two hours, of its original vitamin 82. Another experiment was made during the afternoon to determine cooking loss in a well-lit kitchen with an east that no direct sunlight entered the room. Milk which as heated to boiling point and kept boiling in glass bottles stood on a table five feet from the window and its riboflavin content determined before and after exposure to light. Riboflavin was rapidly destroyed under these conditions, the loss being 26 per cent, in five minutes, 39 per cent, in 15 minutes, 48 per ceht. in 30 minutes. On the other hand boiling the milk in the dark for 45 minutes caused no significant loss of riboflavin. So when cooking milk in the kitchen, cover it and keep the light off. It seems that the place where you will lose most riboflavin from milk is while that light plays on it at the gate or doorstep. The milk bottles should not be allowed to stand in the light outside the house after delivery. Have a receptable with a lid for your milk bottles and bring them inside to a. dark safe or refrigerator as soon as possible after delivery.