NON-ACID MILK

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 20 (Supplement)

NON-ACID MILK

INHIBITION OF STARTER GROWTH. As a corollary to work on acidity production by starters attention was directed , to the problem of “non-acid” milk which leads to marked delay in acid production even when an active starter is available. Mr. P. O. Veale, Hawera, had suggested that bacteria were responsible for the trouble, but had never been able to prove the point. About eighteen months ago a germ was isolated at the Institute from a "nonacid” milk; and it has been proved beyond doubt that this’ is the cause of the trouble in a large number of cases. The trouble .-an be produced in the laboratory by growth of the germ in a normal milk; and it has been shown that even after pasteurisation infected milk is still inhibitory to the action of starter. It has been demonstrated that the use of the vitality test will enable a cheesemaker to detect • which milk supply is at fault, and that strict cleanliness of the milking utensils and adequate cooling of the milk on the farm is essential if ah outbreak is to be cured. The most surprising feature of the investigation was that the “non-acid” germ proved to be almost indistinguishable from a normal starter germ, differing only in’ its property of forming an inhibitory substance during growth in milk.