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must be clinically examined at six-monthly intervals, and those animals
suffering from any disease likely to affect the milk injuriously, must be
segregated or removed. The milk must not at any stage be heat treated,
and must satisfy a methylene blue reduction test, and must not contain
the B.coli in Viooth ml. Tuberculin tested milk may be pasteurised, and
be then retailed as tuberculin tested milk (pasteurised).
Accredited milk is that from cows subjected to periodical veterinary
examination, but not to the tuberculin test. It is required to pass the
same laboratory standards as tuberculin tested milk.
Pasteurised milk is that which has been heated, being retained at a
temperature of 145-150° F. for at least 30 minutes and immediately cooled
to a temperature of not exceeding 55° F.; it shall not have been heated
more than once. This was the only standard accepted in this country
before the war. Owing to staffing and other difficulties, the Ministry
of Health approved during the war the High-Temperature Short-Time
Process by which milk is exposed to a temperature of not less than 162° F.
for at least 15 seconds, being then immediately cooled to 55° F. Pasteurised
milk must not contain more than 100,000 bacteria per millilitre.
The phosphatase test is a very sensitive colorimetric test which demonstrates
deficiencies in the pasteurised product. By the 1946 Regulations,
which come into force on March 1st, 1946, the plate count test is being
rescinded, reliance being placed on the phosphatase and the methylene
blue tests.
Two firms are licensed to bottle t.t. milk, namely, Spackman &
Downham, The Broadway, Hatch End, and Hall & Sons, Pinner Park
Farm.
Two firms are licensed to pasteurise milk, namely, Brazier of Kenton
Lane Farm, and Hall & Sons, Pinner Park Farm.
Distribution.
The bulk of the milk in this district is retailed as pasteurised milk,
the proportion probably not being very far removed from 98 per cent.
of London in 1938. Before the war, the larger retailing firms had, by
education and by rejecting products of less satisfactory producers, been
able to start with a milk of high quality. During the war years, the
general standard of production seems to have fallen appreciably, while,
of course, firms could draw on only those supplies with which they were
furnished. The producer of milk of any quality seemed to be so assured of
a market, that there was little inducement, against the difficulties with
which many were contending, to raise the standards. Much of the
pasteurised milk retailed locally is distributed by one of three firms.
Of these, the Express Dairy Company, with their pasteurising establishment
in Hendon, retails from 13 addresses in the district; the United
Dairies Limited, with their pasteurising establishment in Willesden,
retails from 17 shops ; and the Watford Co-operative Society, pasteurising
in Watford, from 5 addresses. In addition, pasteurised milk is retailed
from a further 10 addresses.
Tuberculin tested milk is retailed from 17 addresses of which eight
belong to the Express Dairy, two to the United Dairies, and two to the
Watford Co-operative Society.