Outlines of Dairy Bacteriology Part 12

In a series of tests conducted by the writer[148] on a Miller pasteurizer in commercial operation, an average of 21 tests showed 12,350 bacteria remaining in the milk when the milk was pasteurized from 156-164 F. The raw milk in these tests ran from 115,000 to about one million organisms per cc.

A recently devised machine of this type (Pasteur) has been tested by Lehmann, who found that it was necessary to heat the milk as high as 176 to 185 F., in order to secure satisfactory results on the bacterial content of the cream.

The writer tested Reid's pasteurizer at 155 to 165 F. with the following results: in some cases as many as 40 per cent. of the bacteria survived, which number in some cases exceeded 2,000,000 bacteria per cc.

~Pasteurizing details.~ While the pasteurizing process is exceedingly simple, yet, in order to secure the best results, certain conditions must be rigidly observed in the treatment before and after the heating process.

It is important to select the best possible milk for pasteurizing, for if the milk has not been milked under clean conditions, it is likely to be rich in the spore-bearing bacteria. Old milk, or milk that has not been kept at a low temperature, is much richer in germ-life than perfectly fresh or thoroughly chilled milk.

The true standard for selecting milk for pasteurization should be to determine the actual number of bacterial _spores_ that are able to resist the heating process, but this method is impracticable under commercial conditions.

The following method, while only approximate in its results, will be found helpful: a.s.suming that the age or treatment of the milk bears a certain relation to the presence of spores, and that the acid increases in a general way with an increase in age or temperature, the amount of acid present may be taken as an approximate index of the suitability of the milk for pasteurizing purposes. Biological tests were carried out in the author's laboratory[149] on milks having a high and low acid content, and it was shown that the milk with the least acid was, as a rule, the freest from spore-bearing bacteria.

This acid determination can be made at the weigh-can by employing the Farrington alkaline tablet which is used in cream-ripening. Where milk is pasteurized under general creamery conditions, none should be used containing more than 0.2 per cent acidity. If only perfectly fresh milk is used, the amount of acid will generally be about 0.15 per cent with phenolphthalein as indicator.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28. Diagram showing temperature changes in pasteurizing, and the relation of same to bacterial growth.

Shaded zone represents limits of bacterial growth, 50-109 F. (10-43 C.), the intensity of shading indicating rapidity of development. The solid black line shows temperature of milk during the process. The necessity for rapid cooling is evident as the milk falls in temperature to that of growing zone.]

Emphasis has already been laid on the selection of a proper limit of pasteurizing (p. 114). It should be kept constantly in mind that the thermal death-point of any organism depends not alone on the temperature used, but on the period of exposure. With the lower limits given, 140 F., it is necessary to expose the milk for not less than fifteen minutes. If a higher heat is employed (and the cooked flavor disregarded) the period of exposure may be curtailed.

~Chilling the milk.~ It is very essential in pasteurizing that the heated milk be immediately chilled in order to prevent the germination of the resistant spores, for if germination once occurs, growth can go on at relatively low temperatures.

The following experiments by Marshall[150] are of interest as showing the influence of refrigeration on germination of spores:

Cultures of organisms that had been isolated from pasteurized milk were inoculated into bouillon. One set was left to grow at room temperature, another was pasteurized and allowed to stand at same temperature, while another heated set was kept in a refrigerator. The unheated cultures at room temperature showed evidence of growth in thirty trials in an average of 26 hours; 29 heated cultures at room temperature all developed in an average of 50 hours, while the heated cultures kept in refrigerator showed no growth in 45 days with but four exceptions.

Practically all of the rapid-process machines are provided with especially constructed cooling devices. In some of them, as in the Miller and Farrington, the cooling is effected by pa.s.sing the milk through two separate coolers that are constructed in the same general way as the heater. With the first cooler, cold running water is employed, the temperature often being lowered in this way to 58 or 60 F. Further lessening of the temperature is secured by an additional ice water or brine cooler which brings the temperature down to 40-50 F.

In the economical use of ice the ice itself should be applied as closely as possibly to the milk to be cooled, for the larger part of the chilling value of ice comes from the melting of the same. To convert a pound of ice at 32 F. into a pound of water at the same temperature, if we disregard radiation, would require as much heat as would suffice to raise 142 pounds of water one degree F., or one pound of water 142 F.

The absorptive capacity of milk for heat (specific heat) is not quite the same as it is with water, being .847 for milk in comparison with 1.0 for water.[151] Hot milk would therefore require somewhat less ice to cool it than would be required by any equal volume of water at the same temperature.

~Bottling the product.~ If the milk has been properly pasteurized, it should, of course, be dispensed in sterilized bottles. Gla.s.s bottles with plain pulp caps are best, and these should be thoroughly sterilized in steam before using. The bottling can best be done in a commercial bottling machine. Care must be taken to thoroughly clean this apparatus after use each day. Rubber valves in these machines suffer deterioration rapidly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29. Relative consistency of pasteurized cream before (A) and after (B) treatment with viscogen as shown by rate of flow down inclined gla.s.s plate.]

~Restoration of "body" of pasteurized cream.~ The action of heat causes the tiny groupings of fat globules in normal milk (Fig. 22) to break up, and with this change, which occurs in the neighborhood of 140 F., where the milk is heated for about 15 minutes and at about 160-165 F. where rapidly heated in a continuous stream, the consistency of the liquid is diminished, notwithstanding the fact that the fat-content remains unchanged. Babc.o.c.k and the writer[152] devised the following "cure" for this apparent defect. If a strong solution of cane sugar is added to freshly slacked lime and the mixture allowed to stand, a clear fluid can be decanted off. The addition of this alkaline liquid, which is called "viscogen," to pasteurized cream in proportions of about one part of sugar-lime solution to 100 to 150 of cream, restores the consistency of the cream, as it causes the fat globules to cl.u.s.ter together in small groups.

The relative viscosity of creams can easily be determined by the following method (Fig. 29):

Take a perfectly clean piece of gla.s.s (plate or picture gla.s.s is preferable, as it is less liable to be wavy). Drop on one edge two or three drops of cream at intervals of an inch or so. Then incline piece of gla.s.s at such an angle as to cause the cream to flow down surface of gla.s.s. The cream, having the heavier body or viscosity, will move more slowly. If several samples of each cream are taken, then the aggregate lengths of the different cream paths may be taken, thereby eliminating slight differences due to condition of gla.s.s.

FOOTNOTES:

[126] From 10 to 16 cents per quart is usually paid for such milks.

[127] Much improvement in quality could be made by more careful control of milk during shipment, especially as to refrigeration; also as to the care taken on the farms. The use of the ordinary milking machine (see page 37), would go far to reduce the germ content of milk.

[128] Farrington, Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc., Sept., 1896.

[129] Hite, Bull. 58, West Va. Expt. Stat., 1899.

[130] Milch Zeit., 1895, No. 9.

[131] Ibid., 1897, No. 33.

[132] Bernstein, Milch Zeit., 1894, pp. 184, 200.

[133] Th.o.e.rner, Chem. Zeit., 18:845.

[134] Snyder, Chemistry of Dairying, p. 59.

[135] Doane and Price (Bull. 77, Md. Expt. Stat., Aug. 1901) give quite a full resume of the work on this subject in connection with rather extensive experiments made by them on feeding animals with raw, pasteurized and sterilized milks.

[136] Rickets is a disease in which the bones lack sufficient mineral matter to give them proper firmness. Marasmus is a condition in which the ingested food seems to fail to nourish the body and gradual wasting away occurs.

[137] De Man, Arch. f. Hyg., 1893, 18:133.

[138] Th. Smith, Journ. of Expt. Med., 1899, 4:217.

[139] Russell and Hastings, 17 Rept. Wis. Expt. Stat., 1900, p. 147.

[140] Russell and Hastings, 21 Rept. Ibid., 1904.

[141] Russell and Hastings, 18 Rept. Ibid., 1901.

[142] Russell, Bull. 44, Wis. Expt. Stat.

[143] Russell, 22 Wis. Expt. Stat. Rept., 1905, p. 232.

[144] Russell, 12 Wis. Expt. Stat. Rept., 1895, p. 160.

[145] De Schweinitz, Nat. Med. Rev., 1899, No. 11.

[146] Harding and Rogers. Bull. 182, N. Y. (Geneva) Expt. Stat., Dec., 1899.

[147] Jensen, Milchkunde und Milch Hygiene, p. 132.

[148] 22 Wis. Expt. Stat. Rept., 1905, p. 236.

[149] Shockley, Thesis, Univ. of Wis., 1896.

[150] Marshall, Mich. Expt. Stat., Bull. 147, p. 47.

[151] Fleischmann, Landw. Versuchts Stat., 17:251.

[152] Babc.o.c.k and Russell, Bull. 54, Wis. Expt. Stat., Aug. 1896.