Condensed Milk and Milk Powder 141 



PART VI 



GONDENSED MILK DEFECTS, THEIR CAUSES 

 AND PREVENTIONS 



CHAPTER XXIII 



CLASSIFICATION OF DEFECTS 



If we recognize in fresh cow's milk an article of food, highly 

 complex in composition, subject to many and complex changes and 

 to rapid deterioration unless handled carefully and skillfully, then 

 the successful manufacture of condensed milk, a product more com- 

 plex in its composition and exposed to more diverse, more vary- 

 ing and, in most cases, more unfavorable conditions than fresh 

 milk, must involve a knowledge that extends beyond the mere 

 mechanical knack of heating, adding sugar, evaporating, sterilizing, 

 cooling, filling, sealing, and packing. 



The simplicity of the process tends to belittle and hide the 

 complexity o<f the product. Anybody can acquire the routine knowl- 

 edge of condensing milk, but few can make a uniformly good quality 

 of condensed milk. It, therefore, happens that defective condensed 

 milk is made now and then in most, if not all condenseries, and that 

 the output of a poor quality of condensed milk is not necessarily 

 the exception, but quite often the rule. 



Many are the defects which cause condensed milk to be re- 

 jected on the market and numerous are the avenues that may lead 

 to the manufacture of defective milk. The milk faults may be of 

 mechanical, physical, chemical, or bacteriological origin, or they may 

 be due to a combination of two' or more of these forces. In some 

 instances the defects can be detected in milk during, or immediately 

 after the process, in which case they may be remedied, or their re- 

 currence prevented. But more often, several weeks may pass before 

 abnormalities develop and before the manufacturer realizes that 

 something is wrong with the milk. In the meantime, the conditions 

 which originally produced the milk defect may have so changed, that 

 it is exceedingly difficult to locate the seat of the original trouble. 



