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101
Unsatisfactory is 7.8 for all grades, 3.3 for Grade A
(Tuberculin Tested) and 9.0 for Pasteurised). Successful legal
proceedings for offences under the Milk (Special Designations)
Orders have been taken in only one borough. There are
technical difficulties in getting thoroughly representative
samples and a uniform bacteriological examination, which
are partly responsible for the limited amount of sampling
and of action to enforce the standards laid down in the
Orders.
Opinion is pretty general that the present classification
of graded milk is unsatisfactory, in particular that there
are too many grades and they are badly named. It is
also felt that the bacteriological standards set out in the
Orders ought to be raised. There is, for instance, no
requirement that B. Coli should be absent from Pasteurised
Milk, while up to 200,000 bacteria are permitted in the
case of Grade A (Tuberculin Tested) milk which might
reasonably be reduced to 100,000. The Society of Medical
Officers of Health is of opinion that the special grades of
milk should be reduced to two, those now known as Grade A
(Tuberculin Tested) and Pasteurised.
PASTEURISATION.
Within recent years, there has been much discussion
as to the merits and demerits of Pasteurised Milk.
Results of feeding animals on Pasteurised Milk have
been advanced from time to time to show that it is less
growth -promoting than raw milk, but the evidence
available shows that these animals require rather more
mineral salts than the calf. Pasteurisation naturally
diminishes the vitamin C Content, but this is unimportant
since even when infants are fed on raw milk the
vitamin C content is practically always supplemented.
I do not think there are any human experiments which
demonstrate that Pasteurised Milk is inferior to raw
milk in nutritive value. On the other hand years of
clinical experience demonstrate that infants and young
children have been fed on heated milk with no detectable
deterioration in their nutritive condition. Raw cows'
milk is originally intended for the calf and it is possible
that the slight changes occurring when it is pasteurised