SALE OF MILK SHAKES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27584, 15 February 1955, Page 8

SALE OF MILK SHAKES

BAN ON RAW MILK SUGGESTED HOUSEWIVES’ UNION URGES ACTION "Personally, I wouldn’t touch a milk shake in this city,” said the District Medical Officer of Health (Dr. D. P. Kennedy) at a meeting of the Christchurch Metropolitan Milk Board yesterday. , Dr. Kennedy was commenting on a letter from the Canterbury Housewives* Union which asked the board to forbid the s*le of raw milk by milk bars and restaurants in Christchurch. Pasteurisation was the only way to ensure a safe supply of milk, said the letter. The board’s supervising officer (Mr J. W. Huggins) said the board had no power to enforce the suggestion in the letter. Such matters could often be dealt with by other means than by-laws or regulations, said Dr. Kennedy. He suggested that notices saying, "Only pasteurised milk sold in this bar,” might be distributed by the milk companies among their customers who bought only pasteurised milk. Mr W. J. Cowles’s suggestion that such notices be offered to milk bar proprietors when they renew their licences next month was adopted by the board. The board agreed to support the Housewives’ Union in any approach to the Minister of Health (Mr J. R. Marshall) urging regulations to make the sale of raw milk in milk shakes illegal. "While we are on this subject, we should again protest at the use of raw milk at Sunnyside Mental Hospital,” said Mr J. Mathison, M.P. “We should point out to the Government that this is the only hospital that is getting raw milk.** To another member, who said that the hospital drew its milk from its own herd, Mr Mathison replied that it was an easy matter for the hospital to pasteurise its own supply. The board decided to write to the Minister of Health along the lines suggested by Mr Mathison.