OCR Text |
Show SANITARY MILK PLANT Cleanliness Often Overlooked in Rush of Business. Score Card Used by Dairy Inspectors Should Be Posted Where it Can Be Easily Seen by Employees Avoid Strainers. During the rush of business the importance im-portance of cleanliness in the milk plant is often temporarily overlooked. As a reminder of points often neglected neglect-ed in this way, a score card, such as is used by dairy Inspectors in scoring city milk plants, should ho posted :tj i t - ' Tank for Storing Milk. where it can be easily seen by the employees who, by studying it, can learn wherein they are lacking, from the inspector's point of view. The dairy division of the bureau of animal ani-mal industry of the United States department de-partment of agriculture will send a sample score card on request. Many of the items on the card are self-explanatory, but there are some details in milk-plant sanitation which are not given on any score card. If the floors, walls and ceiling are smooth and are made of sound and durable materials, they may be easily kept free from dirt and dust. Concrete Con-crete floors are very satisfactory, for they can be flushed often with water, wa-ter, there is no danger of rotting, and if properly constructed there will be no cracks in which dirt can collect. Iron plates laid in cement are sanitary sani-tary and are more durable than con crete. A separate rpom for handling the milk apart from all other operations is essential and all doors must be kept closed to exclude flies and impure air. It is better to provide pure air by means of a modern system of ventila tion. Even when the air is pure, the vats, pasteurizers, coolers, fillers and other apparatus should be covered to prevent all unnecessary contact with the air. The milk must be Vvpt cool after it is received at the plant, and not be allowed to stand long before bottling. If not used at once the cans should be put into a refrigerator or the milk 6tored in tanks made for this purpose. These tanks must be in a cool place or be surrounded with a Jacket of ice water or brine. Strainers or cheesecloth cheese-cloth are more satisfactory and more easily cleaned than those of wire gauze, but the use of strainers of any Covered Milk Pail. kind should be avoided as much as possible. Some dealers strain the nwlk after it is pasteurized before it is run into the filter. This may increase in-crease the bacterial count and furthermore fur-thermore is unnecessary if the milk is properly clarified or filtered before pasteurizing and if the apparatus is clean. A filter of cheesecloth and cotton, if used, must be changed several times during the day. The cheesecloth cheese-cloth must be washed, sterilized and kept where the air is pure. It can be used a few days before throwing away, but the cotton, of course, should be used only once. As soon as the milk is put up all parts of the apparatus should be thoroughly cleaned by first rinsing in cool water, then washing with hot water to which washing powder pow-der has been added, and finally sterilized steril-ized wilh boiling water or steam The pumps and pipes can he rinsed by pumping water through them immediately im-mediately alter using. They must then be taken down and thoroughly washed; this can easily he done if there are several couplings in the pipes. All joints and couplings must be kept tight and free from dirt, rust and corrosion. Baltered and rusty apparatus or cans afford good lodging places for bacteria and, being hard to clean, should not be used. The pasteurizer is one of the most dillicult pieces of machinery to keep clean, as the milk sometimes sticks to the sides and, if not properly cleaned, a cooked layer forms on the Inside, which grows worse each day. |