Imperial Valley Press

ADEQUATE MILK INSPECTION IS VITALLY NECESSARY TO MUTUAL BENEFIT OF COMMUNITY, CLAIM

J. J. Frey, superintendent of dairy service, California Department of Agriculture, who has been in the valley for the past few days attending Dairy Week and Dairy Day activities and conferring with dairy men over the county, is intensely interested in helping Imperial county put over proper milk inspection. Mr. Frey was one of the speakers and one of the attendants at the meeting of the "clean milk committee," which met Friday afternoon to adopt uniform measures regarding county milk inspection.

Mr. Frey has kindly prepared the following article, setting forth fully the need here for such inspection and the best methods to follow in its adoption:

In addition to the need for more dairying as an economic factor in the agriculture of the Imperial Valley, you have a milk problem. It is the problem of a consistently safe supply of market milk of which the public may partake freely with a justified sense of security. The department of agriculture of the state of California knows this is true from a survey recently made and from observation during the past few years. The people in the cities of the valley have recognized this problem as manifested by spasmodic efforts to establish inspection, with varying degrees of success.

California Law

The welfare of all the people is the primary consideration. The health of our younger generation is of greatest concern to parents and thinking people of any community. We know that milk in adequate amounts is necessary to the proper development of the bodies and minds of children, as are dairy products essential to vitality, vigor and stamina of adults. But the same nutritional elements which make milk such an excellent food for mankind make it an ideal medium for the rapid growth of bacteria. Nature intended that milk for infants should never touch anything but mucous membranes. In our modern practices the milk of cows comes in contact with the surface of several utensils or pieces of equipment. It is sometimes handled by many persons and several hours elapses on its journey from the cow to consumer. Hence, the necessity for adequate safe-guards.

Milk inspection as conducted under the Pure Milk Law of the state of California, not only affords protection against milk borne epidemics of communicable disease, such as typhoid fever, but also affords protection against those less spectacular, but no less serious, and far more common intestinal disorders known as "gas" colic, summer complaint, diarrhoea, indigestion, etc.

From a consumer's viewpoint, and as a father of children, I would rather pay a fair price for milk which I know is always safe than to pay five cents a quart for milk of unknown quality. For unknown quality always means inferior milk sometimes and sometimes means inferior milk all the time.

Condemn System

In recommending adequate safe-guards for the market milk supply of Imperial Valley, we do not condemn the present milk supply. Only the system, or better, lack of system under which it is produced and distributed.

From the viewpoint of the good dairyman, efficient inspection does three distinct things which are desirable and of very great importance to him. First, it overcomes "grief." Every dairyman knows what this means. From time to time his milk sours too quickly in spite of his best efforts to prevent. It goes "off" in flavor. Then come complaint and loss of business. He cannot afford, of a small distributor, to pay for special services of a trained technician to locate and overcome the difficulty. At such times the systematic assistance of a good inspector is greatly appreciated. Second; It overcomes illegitimate competition. Every dairyman exerting his best efforts to supply the most fundamental food to the public in a clean, wholesome condition at a reasonable price, knows what it means to meet competition based on price cutting rather than quality. Milk carelessly produced and handled may be sold for a cent or two less than that produced under necessary precautions. Unfortunately the public has no way of recognizing this inferior quality many times until real damage has been done. An alert inspector recognizes inferior milk promptly in his laboratory and is in a position to place reliable information honestly determined before the public, and to bring the vendors of dangerous milk to judgment if prompt action is not taken to raise its standard. Third: The appreciation of uniform high quality is shown by the public through increased consumption giving volume to the dairyman's business with proportionately reduced overhead. This enables him to make more money from his business without advancing the price of milk.

Inspection Needed

The interest of the consumer and dairyman in efficient dairy inspection is parallel-both have need of it. The efforts of the California Dairy Council through their spread of the gospel of "Milk of Health" have laid the foundation and awakened the desire of the people of Imperial Valley for more milk and better milk.

The application of the principles of the "Pure Milk Law" of the state of California will exactly satisfy the requirements.

The inspection of those products of milk which, by the process of manufacture, are changed to a less perishable condition than fluid milk and which enters into inter-city, inter-country, and inter-state commerce, is conducted by state officers.

Market or fluid milk requires more intensive supervision. It is produced locally, consumed locally. It is a local problem. It must be financed by local funds. Properly conducted inspection pays its own way by reason of the increased consumption which occurs. The "Pure Milk Law" of California makes provision for local inspection and guarantees its proficiency through the supervision of a market milk specialist from the state office of the department of agriculture at Sacramento, who devotes his entire attention to maintaining the standards of this work.

Inspectors Trained

The state standards call for a trained man under civil service to act as inspector. The dairy division of our state college of agriculture stands ready to recommend such a man. This man must devote his entire time to the work. He must not accept compensation for his advice or instruction from private sources. He must take frequent samples of the milk as it is delivered to the consumer without the foreknowledge of the distributor. His analysis must be made in a laboratory according to the standard methods of the American Public Health Association. He must make frequent but unexpected visits to dairies and distributing plants. He must keep records of his work. All of this is reviewed once every four months by the market milk specialist. Upon favorable recommendation of this specialist to the dairy service of the department of agriculture at Sacramento, a certificate of approval is issued to the local department. Dairymen producing products of necessary quality are permitted to place a Grade "A" label on the bottle caps or other designations permitted by law which have a definite meaning. Milk of unknown quality is excluded from the market.

A "Surprise Milk Scoring Contest" is held once every four months at the time of the visit of the state specialist, when all of the milk is rated on the basis of 100 per cent as perfect. The factors considered in this contest include the bacteria count, the milk fat and solids content, the flavor, the package, etc. Also the rating given by the local inspector during the four months preceding. The general average rating on each dairy is published in the local press so the public may intelligently select its milk supply.

All that is necessary to set this machinery in motion is for the each city of the group contemplating inspection in Imperial Valley, and preferably also the county, to adopt a uniform ordinance already prepared and placed in the hands of the several city attorneys. By its provisions a local enforcing agency is created to enforce the state standards. Funds which will adequately support the work will be collected through license fees, for milk distribution amounting to one-tenth of one cent a quart. These, the progressive, high class dairymen, gladly accept.

Simple System

This may sound like a complicated system to those unfamiliar with modern methods of inspection, but in practice it is simple. The plan is a demonstrated success and is now
It is results which count. The plant industry of California through the constructive leadership of Director of Agriculture G. H. Hecke has so improved the quality of California fruits and vegetables by inspection and standardization, that quantities of these commodities have been marketed which were previously thought impossible. This reflects the appreciation of the general public. The department of agriculture through its law enforcement program seeks to provide for the greatest good to greatest number, and Director Hecke is anxious to promote the same desirable work with dairy products which has been so successful in the field of fruits and vegetables. In the field of dairy product these benefits are augmented. The survey of the food administration during the World War showed that our principal concern in public health is undernourishment. This was especially true of rural communities. It demonstrates the necessity for the consumption of more dairy products, to quicken the minds, strengthen the bodies and maintain resistance to all sorts of adversity. The repeatedly demonstrated fact that at least a 20 per cent increased consumption of milk follows the establishment of a graded milk supply in the community where it is made available is the best evidence of far reaching benefits of safe milk which merits the full confidence of the public. Added to this is the significant fact that in no community where the system has been approved by the state department of agriculture has the public ever permitted its withdrawal.