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It is only fair to say that the processing plants and dairies in
this country have attained a very high standard and every endeavour
is made to ensure that the public obtains a pure safe milk supply.
There is, however, one problem that is always with us and that
is the occasional dirty milk bottle, this problem causes as much
concern to the dairy trade as it does to local authorities, and in spite
of all the efforts made by the trade to detect these offending bottles
one occasionally gets through to the consumer.
The public are partially to blame for this problem by their
constant misuse of the milk bottle. It is well known that some
people allow these bottles to accumulate in the house, a lot of them
containing deposits of milk which sours and ferments, children are
allowed to play with them in the garden and building operatives are
some of the worst offenders as they allow bottles to accumulate on
building sites where they become coated with sand and cement.
School authorities even are not free from blame, as it has often
been found that scholars are permitted to use milk bottles to hold
plants and as containers for washing brushes that have been used for
water colour paints.
The long term answer to this problem is primarily to educate the
public to regard the milk bottle as a valuable returnable food container,
for the dairy to make a returnable charge on the bottle, or to
go over entirely to wax non-returnable containers which would
naturally increase the cost.
Registration of Milk Vendors
All dairies and distributors of milk must be registered with the
local authority under the Milk (General) Regulations, 1959.
Premises must comply with the conditions laid down in the regulations
and the local authority have power to revoke or cancel a
registration for certain non-compliance of the Regulations. At the
end of the year 69 firms were on the Council's register as Retailers
or Distributors.
Licensing of Milk Vendors
As Romford is a specified area, where only designated milk may
be sold, all retailers must be licensed under the Milk (Special Designation)
Regulations, 1960, which came into operation on the 1st
January, 1961.
The licensing authority under these Regulations is the Food and
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