A Study of Brown Glass Milk Bottles, with Special Reference to Their
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November. 1920 Research Bulletin No. 64 A STUDY OF BROWN GLASS MILK BOTTLES With Special Reference to Their Use in Pre venting Abnormal Flavors Due to Light BY B. W. HAMMER AND W. A. CORDES AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION IOWA STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS DAIRY SECTION AMES, IOWA OFFICERS AND STAFF IOWA AGRICULTURAL EX PERIMENT STATION Raymond A. Pearson, M.S.A., LL.D., President C. F. Curtiss, M.S.A., D.S., Director W. H. Stevenson, A .B ., B.S.A., Vice-Director AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS E. G. Nourse, Ph.D., Chief C. W. Hammans, B.S. (in A .), Asst. AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING J. B. Davidson, B.S., M.E., A.E., E. V. Collins, B.S. in A.E., B.S. in Chief Agron., Assistant Chief W . A. Foster, B.S. in E., B.Arch., Assistant AGRONOMY W. H. Stevenson, A.B., B.S. A., Chief Paul Emerson, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., As- H. D. Hughes, B.S., M.S.A., Chief in sistant Chief in Soil Bacteriology Farm Crops F. S. Wilkins, B.S., M.S., Assistant P. E. Brown, B.S., A.M., Ph.D., Chief Chief in Farm Crops in Soil Chemistry and Bacteriology T. H. Benton, B.S., M.S., Soil Sur- L . C. Burnett, B.S.A ., M.S., Chief in veyor Cereal Breeding H. J. Harper, B.S., M.S., Field Ex- L. W . Forman, B.S.A., M.S., Chief periments in Field Experiments D . S. Gray, Soil Surveyor J. L. Robinson, B.S., M.S., Superin- W . G. Baker, B.S., Field Experiments tendent of Co-operative Experi- P. E. Nordaker, B.S., Soil Surveyor ments C. L. Orrben, B.S., Soil Surveyor H . W. Johnson, B.S., M.S., Assist- ant Chief in Soil Chemistry ANIMAL HUSBANDRY H. H. Kildee, B.S.A., M.S., Chief P. S. Shearer, B.S., Chief in Animal J . M. Evvard, B.S.A., M.S., Chief in Breeding Swine and Beef Cattle Production M. D. Helser, M.S., B.S.A., Chief in L. B. Sharp, M .S., Superintendent of Meat Investigation Experiments in Animal Husbandry A. C. McCandlish, M.S ., Chief in C. C. Culbertson, B.S. in A.H., As- Dairy Husbandry sistant Chief in Animal Husbandry G. E. Weave r, M.S., Assistant Chief G. V. Glatfelter, M.S., Assistant in in Dairy Husbandry Animal Husbandry H. A. Bittenbender, B.S.A., Chief in A. R. Lamb, M.S., Chief in Nutrition Poultry Husbandry BACTERIOLOGY R. E. Buchanan, M.S., Ph.D., Chief; Associate in Dairy and Soil Bacteriology BOTANY AND PLANT PATHOLOGY L. H. Pammel, B.Agr., M .S., Ph.D., J. C. Gilman, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., As- Chief sistant Chief in P lant Pathology Charlotte M. King, Assistant Chief R. F. Croford, Assistant in Plant I. E. Melhus, B.S., Ph.D., Chief in Pathology Plant Pathology CHEMISTRY W . G. Gaessler, B .S., M.S., Acting A. R. Lamb, B.S., M.S., Assistant Chief Edith Wilson, Assistant DAIRYING M . Mortenson, B.S.A.. Chief W. A. Cordes, B.S., M.S., Assistant B. W. Hammer, B.S. A., Chief in in Dairying Dairy Bacteriology ENTOMOLOGY E. D. Ball, B.S., M.S., Ph.D .. Chief I. L. Ressler, B.A., M.S., Assistant F. A. Fenton, B.A., M.S., Ph.D., As- in Entomology sociate Chief in Entomology Wallace Park, B.S., M.S., Assistant Albert Hartzell, B.S., M.A., Assist- in Apiculture ant in Entomology FARM MANAGEMENT H. B. Munger, B.S., Chief HORTICULTURE AND FORESTRY S. A. Beach, B.S.A., M.S., Chief Rudolph A. Rudnick, B.S., Assistant T. J. Maney, B.S., Chief in Pomology in Truck Crops Harvey L. Lantz, B.S., Assistant G. B. MacDonald, B.S.F., M .F., Chief Chief in Pomology in Forestry H . H . Plagge, Assistant in Pomology Frank H. Culley, B.S.A., M.L.A., A . T. Erwin, M.S., Chief in Truck Chief in Landscape Architecture Crops RURAL SOCIOLOGY G. H. Von Tungeln, Ph.B., M.A., Chief BULLETIN SECTION F. W . Beckman, Ph.B., Bulletin Edi- Clara French Lawrence, Assistant tOl' Bulletin Editor E. H. Richardson, Photographer A Study of Brown Glass Milk Bottles With Special Reference to Their Use in Preventing Ab ~ normal Flavors Due to Light By B. W. Hammel' and W. A. COl'des Brown glass milk bottles have been occasionally used in the rr.ilk industry, especially for the delivery of buttermilk. With this product they have apparently been employed for two very different reasons. Some dealers have selected them because the color eliminates the error of delivering buttermilk for sweet milk. Others have used brown bottles because the color prevents the detection of "wheying off" without a rather careful exami nation; their use for this purpose should of course give way to an improvement in the quality of the product. The objection to the use of brown bottles for sweet milk is that the cream line and the amount of sediment in the milk cannot be seen. The failure to see a cream line is a disadvantage in the case of nearly all purchasers, while the lack of opportunity to examine for the amount of sediment is a disadvantage only with the discriminating buyers. The use of brown bottles for milk involves considerations other than those mentioned, and the data herein reported were secured with the idea of getting definite information on the f.- ffect on flavor, color and bacterial content. METHODS USED The brown bottles used were of brown glass and of essentially the same size and shape as the ordinary milk bottles employed, ex cept in a few instances where the brown bottles were being tried Gut for the prevention of tallowiness and where the questions of tf:mperature and bacterial content were not involved. All of the bottles and caps used were sterilized. The bacterial counts were made by the plate method. The medium used was varied, both beef extract and beef infusion agar being employed, but comparative counts were always made with the same medium. The plates were incubated at 37°C. for 48 hours and were poured in duplicate, so that the results represent the average of two plates, except in a few cases where one plate was accidentally lost. In some instances the plate counts were checked with the direct microscopic count in order to be certain that some type of organism incapable of growth on the plates was not present in large numbers. Acid determinations were made by titrating 5 or 10 cc. of the milk with N/ 10 alkali and calculating as the percent lactic acid. 100 The temperature of the milk in bottles which were to be kept free from contamination, was obtained by pouring out a part of the milk and taking the temperature at 'once. While with this method there was undoubtedly a slight warming of the milk, it was considered sufficiently accurate for the results de sired. In other trials the temperature of the milk wa secured by keeping in the milk a thermometer that had been forced thru the paper cap. The temperature of the air was taken by exposing a thermometer beside the milk; while this method would not give an accurate air temperature, it seemed advisable from the standpoint of the results desired. RESULTS OBTA/NED THE INFLUENCE OF SUNLIGHT ON DAIRY PRODUCTS The influence of sunlight on butter and butter fat is well known. [Browne (1), Orla-Jensen (4), Hunziker and Hosman (3) ]. In a study made several years ago of the market milk supplies of a number of Iowa cities, an abnormal flavor suggestive of the tallowy flavor of butter was occasionally observed. The flavor could readily be produced in normal milk by allowing it to stand in a glass container (such as·a bottle or Petri dish) exposed to the sunlight for a comparatively short time. In many trials in which the tallowy flavor was produced in milk in this way, another portion of the milk in a brown bottle stand ing in the sunlight failed entirely to develop this flavor; placing the milk in an ordinary glass bottle inside a metal or other con tainer and thus keeping out the sunlight also prevented the de velopment of tallowiness. Many of the samples of milk in which a tallowy flavor had developed showed very low bacterial counts. The use of effi ciently pasteurized milk gave assentially the same development of tallowiness as did raw milk. The season of the year had very little influence and it was possible to develop a tallowy flavor in milk by exposing it to sunlight during the coldest winter weather when the growth. of micro-organisms was inap preciable during the period of exposure. The results obtained seemed to justify the conclusion that bacteria were not involved in the production of the tallowiness. The influence of sunlight on the flavor of ice cream was ob served in an experiment carried out for an entirely different purpose. A slice of ice cream was placed on a window ledge on a day sufficiently cold to keep the ice cream firm. After an ex posure of one hour, which happened to be to direct sunlight, 101 the ice cream was definitely tallowy and this flavor became more pronounced with an increase in the time of exposure. Cream was tried out and found to develop a tallowy flavor on exposure to sunlight. The tallowiness developed in both raw and pasteurized cream, but was not evident as quickly as in milk.