The Mahnomen Pioneer

MILK is the most important food you buy for your children. Be sure it is of the best quality, collected and sold under high sanitary standards, however, or it may be of an actual menace to their health. This warning comes from Doctors Morris and William Fishbein, in a timely article about milk in June Pictorial Review, in which they point out the urgent need for uniform standards of quality and grading of milk in every section of this country.

"Four out of five communities in the United States with populations from 1,000 to 10,000 do not regulate the conditions under which milk is produced or distributed," these doctors reveal. "Less than 40 per cent of the milk used in such communities is pasteurized to kill disease-producing germs."

Definite standards for milk have been established by the U. S. Public Health Service. About 700 communities now have model milk-control ordinances. Milk which meets certain high standards and is collected by approved methods is given a "Grade A" rating. If milk does not meet these standards in one or more respects, it is given a lower rating, perhaps "Grade B." There are standards not only for pasteurized milk, but also for raw milk. 'Grade A pasteurized must contain less than 30,000 bacteria for every cubic centimeter, and Grade B pasteurized less than 50,000. Grade B pasteurized is made from Grade C raw milk which may contain a million bacteria for every cubic centimeter.'

Pointing out that there are about 1,000 cubic centimeters in a quart of milk, and considering the high bacteria content in every glass, these doctors declare that pasteurization is an absolute necessity for securing safe milk. "Pasteurization," they go on to explain, "is an added safeguard that has been largely instrumental in reducing the number of cases of tuberculosis of the bones, glands and joints which formerly came from drinking contaminated milk. Undulant fever, also called Malta fever, may be transmitted directly from cows through raw milk, but no cases have ever resulted from drinking efficiently pasteurized milk."