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who supplied me with the names of six firms who might supply the Council with
certified clean milk. I wrote to these firms, but not one was in a position to
do so at that time.
The official "clean" milk is of two kinds.
(1) Grade A Milk.
Grade A milk is milk produced under specially clean and hygienic conditions,
from a herd free from tuberculosis. The licence requires that the herd from which
the milk is obtained must contain no cow or any bovine animal kept in contact
with the herd, which has not passed the specified tuberculin test, and certain other
prescribed requirements. While the licence is in force every facility must be
afforded for taking samples of the milk of any cow in the herd, or of the mixed
milk of the herd, or of any milk sold under the licence, at any time or place that may
be thought necessary during the progress of the milk from the producer to the
consumer. The farm must be open to inspection by a representative of the Ministry
of Health, or a local authority acting on behalf of the Ministry, and must attain a
certain standard in respect of equipment and methods. The licence in the first
place is granted after such an inspection, and if at a later inspection the standard
is found to have deteriorated the licence may be withdrawn. The milk must be
cooled on the farm and consigned in a sealed container, having a label giving the
address of the farm, the day of production, and whether from the morning or evening
milking. Dealers, other than producers, who desire to obtain a licence to sell milk
under the designation Grade A milk, must show that their equipment and methods
are found satisfactory on inspection, that the milk is delivered to the consumer in
the vessel in which it is received, or in bottles sterilised by steam, filled on the
premises of the retailer, and closed by discs or caps, showing the day of production.
(2) Grade A (Certified) Milk.
In the production of Grade A (Certified) Milk certain additional precautions
are enforced. The milk, after cooling, is bottled on the producers' premises in
sterilised bottles, and labelled to show the day of production, and the time of day.
The milk on examination at any time before delivery to the consumer must not
contain B. coli communis in one-tenth of a cubic centimetre (in each of two tubes),
or more than 30,000 bacteria per cubic centimetre. Further, the milk must not
be delivered to the consumer as Grade A (Certified) milk, more than two days after
the day of production, but milk, fulfilling these conditions, will keep sweet much
longer. This Grade A (Certified) milk must be delivered to the purchaser in the
bottles in which it has been received from the producer with caps intact.
Hygienic methods of milk production must of necessity raise the price of milk
owing to the extra precautions taken, and the work involved in supplying a
guaranteed pure and clean article, but the .Committee were prepared to accept
this, and to supply the poorest infants in the district with a clean and pure supply
of milk, and give them a chance for the first time to compete for their existence
with children of people who are in better circumstances.