MILK INSPECTION.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11876, 25 April 1904, Page 5

MILK INSPECTION.

—♦ ■ FURTHER ACTION BY THE AUTHORITIES.

Further action with regard to the city milk supply was taken, it is understood, on Saturday and yesterday morning by the dairy inspector, Mr A. Macpberson, who secured over forty samples from <he carts as the milk was being delivered. On Saturday twenty-three samples were taken, and twenty were obtained yesterday. All the samples have been tested, and in no fewer than ten cases had the milk been tampered with. It had been either skimmed, or watered, or whole and skimmed milk had been mixed in such proportions that it was under the standard fixed by the Act, which provides that milk must contaih 3 per cent, of butter fat. The samples taken on Saturday and yesterday showed percentages of butter fat ranging from 1.7 to 6.4. The ten samples showing percentages under the limit allowed by the j Act are to be forwarded to the Departi ment's analyst at Wellington, and probably prosecutions of the offending milk retailers will follow. Possibly some of the watered samples may escape owing to tlie low percentage of butter fat fixed by the Act. In some quarters it is considered that the Dairy Industry Act, in fixing the proportion of butter fat in milk at 3 per cent., has fixed it too low. ' The percentage, it is held, should be increased to at least 3.5. Almost throughout America the standard has been fixed at that percentage; in some parts >t is 4 per cent., in Paris the came standard is exacted. In England, where the standard ha* been the lowest by .5 per cent., it is 3 per cent. It is understood that the average of butter fat in the milk delivered at the factory m this city is 3.8 per cent., and never lower than 3.4 per cent. The "Weekly Press," a few weeks ago, stated that the Kaponga Dairy Factory results were:—Lowest received during the yean 3.5 per cent., highest 4.5 per cent., average 4 per cent. Some of the samples taken in this city on Saturday gtm> 6.4 per cent., and others gave over 5 per cent. This -seems to bear out the contention that the percentage fixed by the Act is on the low side. Of the forty-three samples taken during Saturday and Sunday last, the average of butter fat was 3.7. In only one instance was the inspector hampered in his work, on-s> dairyman, it is said, not wishing to let him take a sample. When he found that the inspector had the.necessary powers to compel dairymen to give samples, and also that he could cancel the license of anyone refusing, all objection was withdrawn. This particular dairyman's milk is understood to have shown no adulteration, and consequently his action was probably an objection to the principle involved. Dairymen wTth poor milk have always some excuse to offer. Some allege that they bought the milk from other dairymen ; others state that the wrong milk has been put in' the cart, by the men at the dairy; and others that they have sold a good deal of their best milk prior to the inspector's descent upon them.