PASTEURISATION OF MILK

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25250, 31 July 1947, Page 6

PASTEURISATION OF MILK

WIDESPREAD SUPPORT IN U.S. COMMENTS BY VISITING INDUSTRIALIST “In the United States, there is no question-that we feel pasteurisation if the only answer to problems of preventing milk-borne epidemics such al typhoid and dysentery,” said Mr H. W. Kochs, chairman c' the Diversey Corporation of Chicago, in an interview with “The Press” last evening. Mr Kochs and his wife have been spending a brief holiday in New Zealand on their way to Australia. Tht Diversey Corporation manufacture! chemicals for the food industries, and is primarily concerned with disinfectants and bactericides used in dairy processes. Pasteurisation, on the other hand, could be used as a means of covering up poor dairy practices, continued Mr Kochs. With efficient dairy processes, there should be no germs in milk in the first place, but pasteurisation should be considered as a safety factor. In the United States pasteurisation was universally applied to city milk supplies. There was a very minor amount of so-called certified milk (raw milk), but this was almost a medical proposition. In Chicago, all milk was pasteurised, and similar supplies were sold even in communities of 2000 or 3000 persons. Forty yearn ago, when pasteurisation was first introduced, it had met with great opposition in America, and it was not till about 1925 that it was broadly accepted. “Pasteurisation Necessary” Pasteurisation was absolutely neces* sary as a safety factor, said Mr Kochs. It had no deleterious effects on milk, but was a matter of mechanical-con-trol. It had been shown time and again in the United States that no milk-borne epidemics occurred in communities where milk was pasteurised. It was in the same category as ,the chlorination of city water supplies. The work of dairy research workers at Massey Agricultural College, Palmerston North, was well known in the United States, Mr Kochs said. The “vacreator" process for the manufacture of butter, originally developed in New Zealand, was now growing in favour in the United States. Its aim was the removal of off-flavours in cream from cows which had eaten rank fodder. Mr Kochs added that he would imagine it constituted one of the biggest advances made in recent years in the butter-making industry. i Mr and Mrs Kochs will fly to 1 Wellington to-day and will ar- > rive .in Sydney on Saturday. In 1 Australia, Mr Kochs intends to ; arrange for the manufacture of I his company’s products.. There was a growing feeling among AmeriI can businessmen that where market prospects justified it, their products should be manufactured by labour of the country where they were to be sold, under the guidance of American technical experts, he said. His coxnpanv had already implemented this pol’cy successfully in Canada. There was a world shortage of chemicals used in his particular ’**• dustry—organic acids and alkalis for the production of sodium phosphates, siltertes. and cleansing compounds. However, during the war. his company had be°n supply priorities next in import?nce to these of the armed forces, and millions of gallons of milk had been saved from spoilage. This work had been done in close col- * laboration with the United State! *- Army, Mr Kochs added.