SAFE MILK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 95, 19 October 1944, Page 6

SAFE MILK

HEALTH OF PEOPLE

VALUE OF PASTEURISATION

The value of milk as a food, as well as dangers which must be guarded against in the interests of the health of the nation and methods of meeting those dangers, were dealt with by the Minister of Health (Mr. Nordmeyer) in the House of Representatives last night when he moved the second reading of the Milk Bill.

It had been stated authoritatively, said Mr. Nordmeyer, that cow's milk was a food of' outstanding value, being one of the most- important items of our dietary. At the same time it was one of the most dangerous, because it was possible for diseases of the cow and of the person handling the milk, and disease arising from faulty hygiene about the milking shed, to be transmitted to the consumer. It was for that reason that the medical profession and other authorities on numerous occasions had urged that all pathogenic micro-organisms in milk should be destroyed by pasteurisation. The Minister said he was aware there were some people who pinned their faith on tubercular eradication from the dairy herds. No method dependent on the clinical detection of infected animals, with their subsequent removal from the herd, had so far been successful anywhere in preventing the spread of infection.

Mr. A. J. Murdoch (National, Marsden): Does the Minister know that Finland did it?

The Minister said it was not correct to say that any country had attained complete success by the adoption of that method. No matter how careful they might be in endeavouring to obtain tuberculous-free milk, there was only one safe method known to medical science, and that was the method of pasteurisation, the .object of which was to destroy the various organisms that might be present in milk, and thus make it safe for human consumption, and also to bring about the destruction of those organisms with the least possible alteration to the physical, chemical, and nutritional properties of the milk.

Much of the current confusion about pasteurisation and much of the antagonism in some quarters were due to the fact that milk had been classed and passed off as pasteurised milk which was. in fact unworthy of the name. Tests conducted on a scientific basis disclosed that where milk was thoroughly and efficiently pasteurised nobody could detect the difference between it and raw milk. The eradication of disease from the dairy herds was essentially an agricultural and veterinary problem, and should be undertaken on economic and not on public health grounds. The provision of safe milk was essentially a public health problem, and could be solved satistactorily only by pasteurisation.