The Milkman’s Math: One Gallon of Water to Three of Milk
Seattle’s city chemist finds W. H. Putman’s milk watered by a fourth and urges the health board to publish the names of adulterators.
The board of health yesterday took the first step toward publicly exposing persons who sell adulterated milk and other food by giving out City Chemist Bogardus’s report on a sample of milk for publication. The report, addressed to Health Officer Palmer, concerned sixty gallons of milk brought by Market Inspector A. E. Braymer from driver W. H. Putman. The analysis found specific gravity 1.034, fats 2.57 per cent, with sugar, casein and ash making up the rest. “This is watered milk,” Bogardus wrote. “If he had ordinary good milk to start with, he has added one gallon of water to about three gallons of milk.” He recommended publishing the names of offenders so the public would know whom to buy from, arguing that watered milk was a fraud on rich and poor, especially the poor, and a serious health matter for children and invalids as warm weather approached. The board ordered a copy sent to the city council with a request for enough appropriation to pay for analyses required by the milk ordinance.
“This is watered milk. If he had ordinary good milk to start with, he has added one gallon of water to about three gallons of milk.”
Food adulteration was a consumer-protection battle before modern labeling laws, and the chemist’s plea to name offenders in the newspaper was an early version of a public health warning. The same questions—who inspects what we eat, and whether disclosure protects the poor most of all—remain central to food regulation today.
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