MILK CANNING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 79, Issue 7145, 14 December 1949, Page 4

MILK CANNING

NEW AMERICAN PROCESS REVOLUTIONARY RESULT OF - RESEARCH A new process for canning fresh milk without altering its taste is reported ready for commercial testing in the United States. Described by The New York Times as “revolutionary”, the process is the result of research by Dr Roy Graves, former dairy scientist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Jack Stambaugh, American dairy farmer and implement dealer. “The Graves-Stambaugh method of processing milk”, The Times reports, “makes it possible for the first time to can fresh milk just as fruit juices or soups now are canned”. Comparing the new method with those now in use in the United States, The Times says:—“Under present processing methods, milk is cooled rapidly on the farm from the cow’s body temperature of 96 degrees Fahrenheit down to 40 degrees. It is then shipped to the dairy plant where it is cooled again, fti the pasteuriser it suddenly is brought up to a temperature of 161 degrees. Then it is homogenised, cooled and bottled. During these changes the milk is exposed to the air, which oxodises it, changes its flavour and encourages the growth bacteria. “By the Graves-Stambaugh method the milk is drawn from the cow under vacuum by milking machines. It flows through stainless steel tubes to a large vat where, still ■at the cow’s body temperature, it goes into a standard homogeniser. From there it is pumped into a new-type pasteuriser, which consists of two cylinder steam jackets with a spiraled core of stainless steel. “The milk is sent through the two cylinders at high speed and under extreme turbulence at a superpasteurising temperature of 190 degrees. This stops enzyme action and pasteurises without burning. From here the milk goes to the canning machine”. Experiments indicate that the most satisfactory type of container for the milk processed by the Graves-Stam-baugh method is a tin coated inside with a thin film of enamel. A Times correspondent reports that milk canned in this way under the new process and kept cold for four months tastes the same as fresh milk.