Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 1Christian, Eugene
Science
Encyclopedia of Diet: A Treatise on the Food Question, Vol. 1
Christian, Eugene
Diet; Diet in disease; Food
The chief form of criminal tampering with milk has been the use of
preservatives to prevent souring. Formaldehyde has been used very
extensively for this purpose. Formaldehyde is a poison, destructive to
all cell life, and has probably been the cause of more actual deaths
than any other form of food adulteration.
MILK PASTEURIZATION
Pasteurization, which takes its name from Pasteur, the French
bacteriologist, is merely a process of heating milk to about 170 degrees
Fahrenheit for the purpose of destroying possible dis-ease germs, and
the bacteria that produce fermentation. In this process the milk is
not allowed to come to a boil for the reason that boiled milk is rather
"dead" or distasteful, and would readily be detected by the public. It
is quite evident that any method of Pasteurization, which would kill
bacteria, would also cause coagulation of the protoplasm and the albumin
of the milk, and render it much less nutritious, and much more difficult
to digest.
[Sidenote: Virtue of naturally soured milk]
If milk producers and dairymen understood the superior food and remedial
value of naturally soured milk, and would exert some effort to educate
the public in its use, they would soon establish a new and profitable
industry, and would give the dairy business of the whole country a new
commercial impetus. The souring of milk can be prevented by cleanliness,
which renders Pasteurizing unnecessary. At the time of the Paris
Exposition, a dairy farm in Illinois sent pure unpasteurized milk to
Paris, which arrived in an unsoured condition. This was achieved by
absolute cleanliness, with the cows, dairy utensils, etc.
CHEESE
Cheese consists of the coagulated casein of milk, together with the
fat globules that may be mechanically retained. Cheese is made by
coagulating the milk with rennet, which has been extracted from the
stomach of a calf, the sugar of the milk being passed off in the whey,
and lost.
Schmier Käse or cottage cheese is formed by allowing the milk to sour,
and to coagulate by gradual warming. This cheese is usually made from
skimmed milk, hence contains practically no fat.
[Sidenote: The several processes of making cheese]
The cheese of commerce is ripened in various ways. The process of
ripening is due to the action of enzyms present in the milk, or to those
formed by bacterial growth. Ripened cheese is considered to be more
easily digested than the unripened product. The best that can be said
of this process is that the ripening of cheese is perhaps the least
objectionable of all processes of decomposition taking place in food
proteids. The only benefit that can be claimed is one of flavor, and, in
matters of flavor, the appetite for Limburger, and similar cheeses, is
at least a cultivated taste that furnishes evidence neither of merit nor
of nutrition.
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