“Viscolized” Milk and its Detection

The practice of separating a portion or all of the cream from milk~ homogenizing (viscolizing) it, and later remixing it with the remaining milk and skimmilk or with skimmilk only as the case may be, has been receiving considerable attention.This practice causes an increase in the volume of cream rising on the bottled milk, the amount of increase depending on several factors under the control of the processor.Recently the process has been declared illegal in Pennsylvania and in a test case the court decision was against the vendor of the "viscolized pasteurized milk" who was found guilty of "intent to deceive."In order to obtain conclusive evidence of the use of the process by a dealer the authorities charged with enforcing the food laws have found it necessary actually to see the process in use.This is not only inconvenient but may be extremely difficult where the user does not wish the fact known.It was on this account primarily that the present study was made, the object being to develop a means of detecting "viscolized" milk by some simple examination of the suspected sample. LITERATUREWhile the process used in making the so-called viscolized milk with its extended cream layer has only recently been patented, and more recently used to any note-worthy extent, it has been known, at least in a few pl~mts, for sometime.In fact, the writer's attention was called to it by a milk dealer in 1919.