View report page

719
bottled milk is sold. And this shop is usually part of a dwellinghouse
and is generally a small grocer's. The methods of cleansing
and storing the bottles are frequently unsuitable for the production
of vessels fit to receive milk. It is hard for persons not trained in
bacteriology to realise that unless the bottles are not only thoroughly
cleansed mechanically, but also sterilised by steam or boiling water,
rapid multiplication of germs will take place in the milk which they
receive. Milk should be treated like a wound, and kept free from '
microscopic, as well as obvious, dirt.
The bottles are, in general, filled in the shop by baling from the
churn in which the milk arrives.
It is clear that it is almost impossible for the less desirable
premises to meet the intention of the Order, as they have been found
on inspection.
But the profits obtainable from the prudent conduct of even a
small retail milk business are such that it is not unreasonable in fact,
as well as needful by law, to require that the purveyor spends money,
if need be, in making adequate provision for the cleansing and
storage of bottles, and in using it for no other purpose. But even
if sterilised bottles are secured, bottling by hand is theoretically
undesirable, and not least when undertaken in a small shop arranged
for other purposes.
There is one dairy in Stoke Newington which possesses a
Pasteurising plant of the "holder" type, and mechanical bottlewashing
and bottle-filling apparatus, and is in general managed
on sound modern principles.
Another dairy possesses a Pasteurising plant of the "flash"
type, with mechanical bottle-washing and bottle-filling apparatus,
but suffers from cramped quarters.
In other cases efforts are being made by the dairymen to obtain
or adapt premises more suitable for the handling of milk than is
possessed by the majority of the smaller salesmen, and such efforts
deserve the support of the Health Department and of the public.