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(i) Milk Supply
Milk has often been acclaimed as the " most perfect " of foods,
inasmuch as it contains all the essential nutriments required by the
human body, especialy infants, and is a food that is easily assimilated
by most persons.
It must be admitted, however, that it is unfortunately a very
good media for the transmission of certain diseases.
Constant supervision is therefore essential at all stages that
milk passes through from the cow to the consumer.
Since 1949, the control of milk production at the farm has been
the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Local authorities, who are also food and drugs authorities, are
responsible for the licensing of retailers and distributors and the
administration of the Milk and Dairies (General) Regulations in
respect of processing plants and dairies.
All dairy cattle in the country are now certified as tuberculin
free, thus reducing the risk of the spread of bovine tuberculosis to
the public.
All milk sold by retail must be heat treated to comply with the
Milk (Special Designation) Regulations. Contrary to some beliefs,
this heat treatment does not impair the nutritional value of milk, it
does, however, destroy any harmful bacteria that may be present
and improved the keeping quality.
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 really 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
flowed to play with them in the garden and building operatives are
some of the worst offenders as they allow bottles to accumulate on
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