Milk for Town Supply

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 620, 23 March 1929, Page 29

Milk for Town Supply

NEW DELIVERING METHODS

Improvements Over 60 Years

Throughout the merchan ency over the past quarte away with bulk delivery an handy sealed packages wherev the most economical, this met] hygienic. The practice has been larg dairy produce. Milk has beei firms in glass bottles; to-day, not be long before each bou supply of milk in sealed pape 'J'HE delivery of milk bottled in paper containers has already been started in the United States, and the users claim that the new method has many advantages over the method of delivery in bottles. TJp to little more than a-quarter of century ago the delivery of milk to families was handled in a very primitive manner, with no regard to sanitation or quality as we regard these factors to-day. Even to-day, although, regulations have been formulated with a view to ensuring that absolute cleanliness is the rule in the Handling of milk from the time it leaves the cow on the farm up till the time of delivery, the old method of delivery from the milkman’s can to the jug per the medium of a longhandled dipper is still highly popular. The claim for being the first to graduate from the old methods of delivery is made for Alexander Campbell, of New York. In 18S9 he startled the dairy world by putting qw. his delivery in glass bottles. Since that year many improvements have been introduced into the business, all tending to the beneficial control of this most perishable commodity. Among the improvements must be included a decidedly 'firmer inspection of dairies and of milk products; pasteurisation; transportation in the United States, and ill some of the other countries of dense population, of milk in refrigerator tank cars and, over shorter distances, in giant ‘thermos” trucks which were first used in the United States. Strangely enough, little of the improvements in the handling of milk have touched the last step of all. In the packing of the fluid delivered to the consumer in stores or at his home for the last 30 years, or up to 1919, the familiar glass bottles were accepted as the best possible containers. Ten years ago, however, a Fair Price Milk Committee reporting on the distribution of milk in New York, stated that the whole problem of distribution would be simplified by the abolition of the glass bottle and the substitution in its place of a paper container, or other similar substitutes, so that the package of milk delivered to the consumer is sealed, Insuring

dising world the whole tendr of a century has been to do d to market merchandise in er possible. Apart from being hod has been proved the most tely adopted by distributors of l delivered for years by many the suggestion is that it will sewife will receive her daily ir containers. the purity of its contents and at the same time doing away with the big expense of the bulk and weight, breakage and waste of glass milk bottles. The perfect paper container has now made its appearance in a coneshaped receptacle that Is pressed together at the top by an airtight seal, on which is stamped the date of sealing. A pair of scissors or sharp k n i^ e ,. cu^s ,°® top below the seals, and the milk flows smoothly from the

opening. After using part of the contents the bottle may be closed by bending the top over firmly in a flap. The new method has much to commend it. New Zealand housewives have little to complain about regarding the quality and method of delivering of their daily milk supply. Still, in many instances, especially in the smaller centres, there is room for improvement. From the point of view of economy and health the new method of packing and delivery merits investigation.