THE CREAM LINE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 141, 11 December 1925, Page 9

THE CREAM LINE

UNFOUNDED COMPLAINTS

"SKIM MILK IN SUMMER TIME"

A PERSONAL INVESTIGATION.

Where does the cream line, the dividing line between the top cream and the main content in the- conn oil's milk bottles, go in the summer time? Judging, by a considerable number of complaints made recently, this question has agitated many "minds, and the lack of the right answer, has moved some writers, most of them over their own signatures, others anonymous, to criticise the council's milk department sharply, and even to accuse the management of deliberately extracting cream from the whole milk in .the summer months, and attempting to palm off "skim milk" upon the consumer. The extraction of

cream" from milk to be bottled

and the summer-time skim milk •are, if a "Post" reporter who mai"! his own inquiries saw rightly, myths pure and simple.

Certainly, the line of division between cream and milk in the neck of the morning bottle is very much less marked in the summer than during the colder months, and on sight alone the consumer, has an apparent cause to register a complaint. But he would not, after inquiring a little further, consider his complaint' of "skim milk" quite so"soundly based.

PASTEURISING TEMPERATURE,

The cream fats are all there still, but they 'do not rise to tli'e top in summer as in winter, because, to insure the better keeping qualities of the milk under household conditions (which are as often as not as unfavourable as they well could be, short of deliberately bad conditions), a higher pasteurising temperature i* employed in the summer. In winter, the standard pasteurising temperature is 145 degrees Fahrenheit, in summer 148 degrees, with always a possible slight variation either way. In oiilk pasteurised at 14S degrees, the cream line shows most pleasantly. Pasteurisedl4B degrees, the line is higher in the neck of the bottle; and should the pasteurising temperature climb very slightly over 148 degrees, the cream line may disappear altogether. The cream is still in the bottle, but the slightly higher temperature has emulsified the fats and they, remain suspended in the -milk. On no-ac-count is cream extracted from the milk as supplied to the depot and bottled for consumption as milk.

RECORDS AND PLACING OF

MACHINERY.

So much for the explanation as given By the general manager of the department (Mr. E. E. Herron) and confirmed by the officer in charge of the. laboratory, Mr. S. S. Steele); but because "The Post" reporter was perhaps inordinately inquisitive, he sought further enlightenment. It was given in several ways. A^ pile pf milk and cream records was" produced, and he was invited to make head and tail of them. Until the- record principles- were explained it could not be done, but thereafter the figure! showed definitely that month by month a greater quantity of cream has been delivered to the depot than was required for sale as cream to customers. There has been, therefore, no reason why cream should be extracted from milk, unless, of course, for the annoyance of consumers, which is hardly a feasible reason.. The figures could be quoted, but would occupy a deal*of space, and, in any ease,, they may be inspected by anyone genuinely interested..

The milk was seen in process of treatment from delivery stage to bottle, and it was obvious that such is the arrangement of machinery that cream extraction could not take place If merely a few hundred gallons were treated daily something could possibly be done, but the side tracking of 4000 gallons during the process of treatment is out of the question. MELK SENT OUT ONCE ONLY.

As the "Post" reporter did not announce his intention to walk inquisitively through the- depot, he had no reason .to believe that one of the employees should have been specially detailed to empty bottles returned, from the rounds into 'a bulk can. Mi Tic is on-no account sent out on one day if not required on the rounds on the day before. This milk is separated, and the cream is sent back to Baku! for butter making. A TEST ON BEQUEST... ' A. bottle was- selected at random at the reporter's request from the bottling machine, and a sample was placed in the centrifugal testing machine. It showed a fat content of 3.6 per cent. It was not a high test as council ttilk goes, for the records showed'3.ss, 3.85, 3.7, 4.05, and 4.1 per cent., but the Health Department's requirement is 3.25 per cent. That bottle, at any rate, was up to and over test. The cream line was not visible, there was no cream line, but the cream, was there. FEOM THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT. An inquiry was made at the dtj trict office of the Health Department: Was there reason to believe that on occasion the City Council's milk fell below, the whole milk standard, or that cream fats were extracted from milk sold as milk? '''The City" Council," replied Dr. MerceT, "is on precisely the samo footing as any other Vendor of milk; the Department's inspectors require samples for testing from the council's vans as from any.other dairyman. I can say that we have never had reason to believe that fats are extracted, nor can I believe that the council would consider such a practice, for pno exposure would just about mean the ruin of their whole business. If there had been any doubts about it this Department would haye t heard about it some time during the seven years .the system has been in operation, but all I need say is that no'cause for action has arisen."