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43
Boiling water means water at the temperature at which it boils,
212 degrees F., or in practice 210 degrees F., and does not mean, as
is often mistakenly thought, water from which watery vapour, or
steam, as it is often erroneously called, rises. To get boiling water
for purposes of dairying the cheapest and most practicable way
is by means of a steam boiler. This the dairymen in Ealing
have been persuaded to instal.
The cleansing of bottles in which milk is delivered is a matter
which often receives insufficient attention. A milk bottle is
included under the Article quoted and therefore should be cleansed
by means of steam or boiling water, yet milk bottles which are
subjected in the homes to varied uses are apt to be imperfectly dealt
with by the dairyman. Some bottle washers have been placed on
the market which expose the bottles for a matter of simply seconds
to such a temperature, far short of boiling point, as is quite incapable
of sterilising them. Where bottle washers have been
installed in Ealing it has been insisted that at the end of the washing
process the bottles should be exposed to a jet of boiling water or
steam projected from a nozzle inserted inside the bottle. Steam
is found to be more practicable in its application than boiling water.
When there has been no bottle washer of this type the installation
has been required of a steam chest in which crates of bottles which
have already been washed can be placed and in which, after the
door has been fixed, the bottles are exposed to steam for ten to
fifteen minutes. This exposure to steam is essential alike for the
protection of the public and from a commercial point of view
because when the bottles, and in fact when all milk receptacles,
are sterilised the milk keeps better and the dairyman gets the
resulting approbation of the public and so greater custom. When
a dairyman has continued to refuse to comply with Article 21 of
the Order threats to take steps to remove his name from the Register
under Section 2 of the Milk and Dairies Act (Amendment) Act,
1922, have proved effective, although action is always possible
under Article 21 of the Order itself.
Article 32 of the Order is also a very valuable one for preventing
milk from being unnecessarily exposed to heat, and by virtue of
this Article not only have counter-pans been abolished except in
three cases which are under consideration but the retail purveyors
have been persuaded to keep the milk bottles or other receptacles