Ultra-Violet Rays and Milk.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 17 July 1914, Page 2

Ultra-Violet Rays and Milk.

The Bureau of Animal Industry has been carrying on a number of experiments at Washington, D.C., in the use of ultra-violet rays for the sterilisation of milk. The milk is spread out in a thin layer by means of a drum revolving at high speed, which picks up the milk from one trough and conveys it to another. While on the drum it is subjected to the ultra-violet rays. Then it is picked up from the second trough by a second drum and conveyed to a sterile flask. A quartz mercury-vapour lamp generates the ultra-violet rays to which the thin film of milk is exposed. It has been found that by this treatment the bacterial contents is greatly reduced. However, when the milk is exposed for a sufficient length of time or in a film thin enough to produce a much larger reduction in the bacterial content, it is given a disagreeable flavour which renders it unfit for the market.