﻿MEDICAL MILK COMMISSIONS AND CERTIFIED MILK. 6 



ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE TERM " CERTIFIED MILK." 



The term " certified milk " originated with the member of the 

 commission who formulated the plan. At the instance of the com- 

 mission the word " certified " was registered by Mr. Francisco m the 

 United States Patent Office on October 16, 1904, under registry No. 

 25368, the object being to protect it from being degraded by dairy- 

 men not under contract with a medical commission. It was dis- 

 tinctly understood, however, that the use of the term should be 

 allowed without question when employed by medical milk commis- 

 sions organized to influence dairy work for clinical purposes. 



Dr. Henry L. Coit, of Newark, N. J., who has been called " the 

 father of certified milk," gives the following definition 1 of certified 

 milk : 



Milk from a lower animal which has been certified by a medical milk com- 

 mission appointed by a medical society, which certification is the monthly 

 authorization for the commercial use of the term and which certificate is based 

 upon the commission's investigation relative to the production of the milk 

 showing that it conforms to the standards of quality and purity for certified 

 milk and the methods and regulations for the production of certified milk, 

 which standards of quality consist of a fresh milk, unchanged by either heat 

 or cold, less than 24 hours old when sold, and which contains not less than 12 

 per cent of total solids, with not less than 3.5 nor more than 5.5 per cent of 

 fat, to which have not been added any other food principle, chemical substance, 

 or preservative, which standards of purity for the milk consist of the low- 

 est possible bacterial and dust-dropping content consistent with the highest 

 possible practice of dairy hygiene, provided that the average numerical con- 

 tamination is not above an average weekly count of 10,000 bacteria per cubic 

 centimeter, and from which milk every known method has been employed to 

 exclude pathogenic microorganisms, and which standards of purity are safe- 

 guarded by a medical guaranty of the health and personal hygiene of every 

 employee handling the milk and by a veterinary guaranty that the milk herd 

 will not be a carrier of any disease to those using the milk for food; which 

 methods and regulations for the production of certified milk are carried on in 

 conformity with those adopted by the American Association of Medical Milk 

 Commissions and are changed from time to time as the action of this associa- 

 tion modifies the technique for the attainment of the standards of quality and 

 purity for certified milk growing out of improved methods and regulations for 

 its production. 



THE CONTROL OF DAIRIES. 



Some commissions — particularly such as have under their super- 

 vision only one dairyman who both produces and distributes certified 

 milk — enter into a binding contract with the dairymen. This con- 

 tract contains a more or less complete and detailed statement of the 

 conditions under which certified milk must be produced and mar- 

 keted; specifies standards for composition and bacterial content of 



1 This definition is modified somewhat in view of the fact that at the sixth meeting 

 of the American Association of Medical Milk Commissions changes were made in the 

 chemical standards outlined by Dr. Coit. 



