﻿MEDICAL MILK COMMISSIONS AND CERTIFIED MILK. 9 



line. An unfoitunate feature has been that many of them have been 

 operated at a financial loss, and this has had a demoralizing effect 

 upon many dairymen, who have been led to believe that the produc- 

 tion of clean milk necessitates the outlay of large sums of money in 

 expensive equipment. 



SO-CALLED CERTIFIED MILK NOT CONTROLLED BY MILK COMMISSIONS. 



There are a few dairymen who sell their product under the name 

 of certified milk who have no connection with the milk commissions. 

 These, in some cases, certify to their own product, and in others 

 samples are sent to a State experiment station or to some local chemist 

 or bacteriologist for examination. Some dairymen in this class supply 

 a very creditable product. There are others whose mi-Ik is of only 

 ordinary quality. Here, again, the samples for analysis are usually 

 taken by the dairyman himself from milk fresh from the cow and 

 immediately iced and sent to the analyst. The analyst reports his 

 results and the dairyman uses them to advertise his product. This 

 can not be looked upon as anything but a deception, as the consumer 

 is given to understand that this is the analysis of the milk as it is 

 delivered to him daily. It is only when medical milk commissions 

 have been organized and a plan of education has been started to 

 create a demand for sanitary milk designed for infant feeding that 

 there arises any danger of an impure milk being put on the market 

 under such a label. It is manifestly unfair, therefore, that after a 

 commission, serving without pay in the interest of the public, has 

 created a feeling that " certified " milk means a safe, clean milk for 

 infant feeding, some unprincipled dairyman should be able to prey 

 on the ignorance of the public and supply an unsafe milk at a high 

 price. Some steps should be taken by the milk commissions or by 

 city or State officers to prevent such practices. Where milk is an 

 article of interstate commerce, however, the national pure-food law 

 covers misrepresentations of this character. 



LEGALIZATION OF THE TERM "CERTIFIED MILK." 



The State of New York has set a good example in passing a law 

 for regulating the sale of certified milk. A portion of the law reads 

 as follows : 



No person shall sell or exchange, or offer or expose for sale or exchange, as 

 and for certified milk any milk which does not conform to the regulations pre- 

 scribed by, and bear the certification of, a milk commission appointed by a 

 couniy medical society organized under and chartered by the Medical Society of 

 the State of New York and which has not been pronounced by such authority to 

 be free from antiseptics, added preservatives, and pathogenic bacteria in exces- 

 sive numbers. All milk sold as certified milk shall be conspicuously marked 

 with the name of the commission certifying it. 



4999°— -Bull. 1—13 2 



