Condensed Milk and Milk Powder 133 



This standard is reasonable, just, adequate and attainable under 

 all normal conditions. Sweetened condensed milk in hermetically 

 sealed tin cans averages about 32 per cent, milk solids, and the per 

 cent, of milk solids can be increased considerably above this aver- 

 age without injuring the marketable properties of the product. 

 Manufacturers of sweetened condensed milk well know from costly 

 experience, that it would not do to drop the per cent, of milk solids 

 to or below 28 per cent. Such milk would be too thin to hold the 

 sugar in suspension, the sugar would tend to settle to the bottom of 

 the cans, rendering the product unsalable, though not necessarily 

 unwholesome. Again, this thin milk does not keep well, it is prone 

 to undergo fermentation. -The manufacture of a good quality of 

 salable sweetened condensed rnilk requires that the fresh milk be 

 condensed at the ratio of about 2.y 2 :i. With this ratio of concen- 

 tration it is obvious that it is not difficult to incorporate 28 per cent., 

 or over, of milk solids in sweetened condensed milk at all times. 



"Evaporated Milk is milk from which a considerable portion 

 of water has been evaporated and contains not less than 28 (twenty- 

 eight) per cent, milk solids, of which not less than 27.5 (twenty- 

 seven and five-tenths) per cent, is milk fat." 



Unfortunately, for the moral effect of the law and for the 

 progress of the condensing industry, the standard of evaporated 

 milk was made so high, evaporated milk shall contain 28 per cent, 

 solids, that it was found to be beyond the reach of the manufacturer 

 to comply with it under most conditions without impairing the mar- 

 ketable properties of the product. The results of this error have 

 confronted many an honest manufacturer with unsurmountable dif- 

 ficulties. He was compelled to choose between two equally unsat- 

 isfactory alternatives, i. e., either to manufacture a product below 

 standard, violating the law, or to close his factory. 



Modified Evaporated Milk Standard. — The unreasonableness 

 of the Federal Standard for evaporated milk was experimentally 

 demonstrated by results of investigations conducted at the Indiana 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. 1 Further extensive investigations 

 were made by the United States Bureau of Chemistry. 2 Finally, 

 in March, 191 1, 3 the standard Was modified to read as follows: 



1 Hunziker, Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No'. 143, 191U 



2 Results not published 



3 United States Department ol Agriculture, Food Inspection Decision No. 131, 1911 



