OUR MILK SUPPLY. PROVISIONS FOR CLEANLINESS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 44, 21 February 1908, Page 2

OUR MILK SUPPLY. PROVISIONS FOR CLEANLINESS.

Regulations are gazetted this week, under tho Sale of Food and Drugs Act, for securing tho cleanliness of the milk supply of the Dominion. The regulations, which will come into force on Ist March, are as follow: — 1. No person shall stand, or allow to stand, upon any public footpath or pavement any milk, or any milk cans or other vessels or utensils used for the carriage of milk. 2. No washing or rinsing of milk cans or utensils must tako place unless in a properly constructed building. 3. No manipulation of milk such as mixing must take place unless in a properly constructed building. 4. No preservative of any kind may be added to milk sold as fresh milk. 5. No person shall use for the carriage of milk any cart used for the carting of manure or any substance likely to cause injury to milk. 6. No vessel, the substance, construction, or condition of which is likely to contaminate milk or depreciate its nutritive value, may be used for tho holding of milk. 7. All carls used for the conveyance of milk must be washed clean every day. 8. All milk, unless in the actual process of conveyance, must be stored out of tho direct rays of the sun. 9. No milk must be exposed for sale unless in vessels so covered as to preclude any contamination of the milk. 10. All measures, dippers, and other utensils used in the sale of milk must bo of such construction, substance, and in such condition as will preclude any contamination of the milk. 11. .No room which is used as a kitchen or living-room, or wherein any one sleeps, may be used as a milk shop or milk-store. 12. There must be attached to every shop where milk is sold an efficient supply of hot and cold water, and apparatus suitable for the cleansing and sterilising of the vessels used. 13. No water-closet, pan closet, or pit privy, cesspool, or urinal must be within, communicate directly with, or ventilate into any dairy or any room used as a milk-store or a milfr-shop. 14. No person suffering from any • infectious disease, whether notifiable under lav/ or not, may take part in the conveyance, treatment, or sale of milk. 15. No pan closet, pit privy, cesspool, or urinal must be within 10ft of any milkshop or milk-store. 16. All milk-shops and milk-stores must be kept in such a state of cleanliness as will prevent the contamination of the milk. 17. i\o shop where milk is sold may be used for tho sale of any article likely to affect or cause contamination of the milk. 18. All milk for transit must be consigned in vessels of approvod pattern, and such vessels must, during transit by rail or by boat, be sealed or locked. 19. If any person fails to observe or commits a breach of any of the foregoing regulations, he shall, upon conviction, He liable to a penalty not exceeding £20. By a new regulation made under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1907, it 13 provided that milk shall not contain less than 12 per cent, of total solids, not less than 8i per cent, of solids not fat, not less than 3i per cent, fatty solids (milk fats), and not more than 1 per cent, of ash. Milk is defined as "tho fresh, clean, lacteal secretion obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows, properly fed and kept, excluding that obtained fifteen days> before and ten days after calving. Tho addition of water to milk is prohibited.