HEAI/THFUI<NE;SS OF BUTTER 561 



effect on the digestibility and wholesomeness of the butter. The 

 use of lactic acid starter is bound to have a salutary effect on the 

 wholesomeness of the butter, since lactic acid and lactic acid 

 bacteria aid in digestion and assist in keeping the intestinal 

 tract in a healthy condition. And the washing of the butter 

 with pure water, aside from freeing the butter from much of 

 the elements of buttermilk that yield most readily to decompo- 

 sition, such as curd and lactose, assists in removing any soluble 

 decomposition products if such products were contained in the 

 cream. American butter contains no preservatives of any kind. 

 The addition of preservatives to butter is prohibited by the 

 Federal Pure Food Act which went in force January 1st, 1907. 



It may therefore, be safely stated that commercial butter 

 is devoid of chemical ingredients, such as decomposition prod- 

 ucts derived from the cream, or chemicals added in the process 

 of manufacture, that have any known harmful effect on the 

 health of the consumer. 



The number of bacteria, yeast and mold, that may be ex- 

 pected to be found in sour, farm-skimmed cream, as is received 

 at the average gathered cream creamery, is shown in Table 95. 

 These figures represent 136 separate churnings, made at $1J, 

 seasons of the year. This table further shows the germ-killing: 

 efficiency of the holding and the flash process of pasteurization.. 

 It indicates that in either process the reduction of bacteria is 

 very great, averaging over 99.9 per cent in the case of the 

 holding process and about 99.5 per cent in the case of the flash 

 process. 



The rate of reduction of the different types of micro- 

 organisms was practically the same for one and the same process 

 of pasteurization, showing that pasteurization, as practiced in 

 the commercial creamery, is quite as efficient in its destruction 

 of the more objectionable types of germs, such as the liquefying 

 or peptonizing bacteria and the yeast and mold, as it is of the 

 mere acid producing types. 



Freedom from Germs of Disease: Milk is capable of be- 

 coming the carrier of germs of bovine diseases infectious to 

 man, such as tuberculosis, foot and mouth disease, milk sick- 

 ness, and of germs of human diseases such as tuberculosis, ty- 

 phoid fever, scarlatina, diphtheria, etc. The question is there- 



