PASTEURISED MILK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22223, 25 September 1935, Page 17

PASTEURISED MILK

Sir,—Pasteurised milk is definitely deficient as an article of diet compared with fresh milk. It is less easily assimilated, is deficient in vitamins E and D, and children raised on pasmilk must have citrus fruit juices to correct this deficiency. Unfortunately during the summer months the North Island temperature is such that with the inadequate storage facilities in the average household, the milk has to be pasteurised to enable it to keep. The ideal food is fresh (unpasteurised) milk, chilled at the farm, and from cows guaranteed free from tuberculosis. The fact that certain leading English hospitals will, after repeated experiments, accept no other milk, is sufficient. Dairyman. Sir,—Dr. G. B. Chapman's condemnation of pasteurised milk is well founded. The belief that dirty milk can be improved by this process is erroneous. As pointed out by Mr. J. Newton, of Droylsden, England, whose fight against pasteurism is well known in the farming world, "milk once dirty can never be cleaned. Pasteurisation does not remove dirt, it cooks it." Dr. Vincent, at tho Cheshire Milk Producers' annual dinner at Crewe, stated: "The man who sterilises good milk is a fool, and the man who sterilises bad milk is a rogue." A heating process applied to milk succeeds only in disguising impurities while destroying life-giving qualities. Professor Newell holds that the boiling, or sterilising, of milk is wrong, and here he is supported by the Rowett Institute, where it has been shown that pasteurisation produces physical and chemical changes in milk, which caused deterioration in the health of calves fed on it. Observation shows that the same holds good with children. So the question comes back to clean, healthy cows, milked under clean conditions, and here much reformative work is urgently needed. Elizabeth Connors.