Pasteurised Milk Supply: Process Already Started

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1947, Page 4

Pasteurised Milk Supply: Process Already Started

It may come as a surprise to many residents of Greymouth . and other townships in the district to learn that they have been drinking pasteurised milk since the beginning of this month. In spite of known prejudice against pasteurised milk, few residents of the district were aware of the change from raw to treated, milk when the pasteurisation plant .was brought into operation at Greymouth, for the first time on November 1, and the Riversdale Dairy Supplies Company has received but one comment on the milk in that time.

An inspection of the pasteurisation machinery at the company’s in Whall street was made by a group and Runanga residents —mainly women—under the auspices of the West Coast Adult Education Council, this fnorning, when the process was explained by the manager, Mr J. Carson.

The pasteurisation plant, which recently arrived from England, was installed last month and brought into operation at the start of November, since when pasteurised milk has been delivered daily to the whole of Greymouth, Kumara and Waiuta and part of Runanga. % Milk, delivered to the factory in cans from various farmers, is emptied into a large vat, where it is weighed automatically. It is eventually brought to a temperature of 162 degrees as it passes through and over heated pipes and then is rapidly cooled in the final process of pasteurisation which is aimed at eradicating all bacteria from milk. Whereas previously the best quality milk could be bottled and kept for 24 hours without pasteurisation, the new treatment will permit the Riversdale Company, if. necessary, to keep milk fresh for five days. The visitors to the factory this morning saw the complete bottling system in operation. As emptied bottles were returned by roundsmen who sent the crates from their motorvehicles down a wooden chute to the floor of the factory, the bottles were introduced to a machine in which they were automatically sterilised. On emerging they travelled along an endless belt to another machine, which filled them with milk from the pasteurisation unit and capped them at the same time. The bottles within a few minutes of their return by the roundsmen were again in crates and in a freezing chamber awaiting delivery to consumers tomorrow. Though the pasteurisation process has brought about very little change in the taste of the milk, it has eliminated all trace of odour, stated Mr Carson this morning, when he pointed out that the most determined objectors to the process had been completely unaware of the change.