BACTERIA IN MILK

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 298, 8 March 1928, Page 13

BACTERIA IN MILK

CAREFUL HANDLING NECESSARY DAIRY EXPERT’S ADVICE “If New Zealand dairy farms were to be put through a test in competition with the United States of America, they would rank very low, probably gaining less than 35 per cent.” Mr. P. O. Veale, scientist of the Federation of Taranaki Dairy Factories, when addressing the Dairy Factory Managers’ Conference yesterday, gave some good advice to those whose duties included the occasional or constant inspection of dairy farms. He considered that sufficient care in preventing the contamination of milk was not taken on New Zealand farms.

In America, where stringent tests had been applied, 10,000 germs only were discovered in a cubic centimeter of A grade milk. In New Zealand, factory managers might consider them-

selves fortunate if th e average number of bacteria per cub.c centimeter was less than half a million. The difference in quality between the milk of the two countries, said Mr. Veale, was obvious. Such a state of affairs could only be improved by taking more precaution s on farms. Farmers, generally, took care in the actual handling of the cows and milking, but were careless with the milk once it had been drawn. The most important thing was to keep milk and cream cool. Many times had fae tory managers seen cans standing in the hot sun for hours. It was durinf that period that germs multiplied so rapidly; in fact, as much as 15,000,000 times.