Rita Miller, age 11, of Tulsa, Okla.., for the question;

What is pasteurized and homogenized milk?

In pioneer days, milk was carried straight from the cowshed to the kitchen, Nowadayss cows' milk goes through a number of processes before it reaches the market. The most important process is pasteurizing. It is so important th=at most places make it illegal to sell unpasteurized milk. Another process is homogenizing. This is done merely for our convenience because it makes the milk easier to handle in the kitchen. For health's sake, all milk should be pasteurized, but it need not be homogenized.

The word pasteurize.was taken from the name of Louis Pasteur, a French scientist who discovered how to destroy certain harmful bacteria present in food. All foods teem with bacteria and we devour countless numbers of them with every meal. Usually this does not matter at all, for most bacteria are neutral where we are concerned and do us no harm. A few kinds are even friendly to us and help us digest our food. A very few are our enemies. These may be harmful to us and cause sickness and disease. It is these bandit bacteria that Louis Pasteur learned how to destroy. In pasteurizing our milky we use his method of destroying our little enemies and making it a safe food.

A bottle of homogenized milk stays smooth and even from top to bottom. A bottle of un‑homogenized milk separates into cream and skimmed milk. The rich cream floats to the top and the: rest is pale and thin. This can be very inconvenient, for all the cream comes off with the first helping. It may be fine for the first person using it to pour on his cereal, but the rest of the family is left with pale, skimmed milk.

The homogenizing puts a stop to this cream separating. It prevents the cream from floating to the top and keeps it evenly spread through all the milk, The last spoonful of milk in the bottle has just as much, and no more, cream than the first. The cream is made of butter fat. It floats throughout the milk in globules so small that they can be seen only through a microscope. However, they are fats, and lighter than the other solids floating in the milk. In time, they will float up to the top. The homogenizing process stops this by breaking the globules into still smaller blobs. They then become trapped with the other fine solids and are unable to float up and separate themselves into a layer of cream on top of the milk.

The homogenizing process is done; soon after the milk reaches the dairy. The milk is forced through a machine with fine holes. This breaks up the globules of butter fat. Pasteurizing is done next. This process requires heat. The milk may be heated to a temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit and kept at that steady temperature for half an hour, Or it may be heated to 160 degrees Fahrenheit and held there for 15 seconds. In either case, the heat has destroyed all the bacteria which might be likely to harm us, The milk tastes just as good and is just as good. For the dairies know ,just how to work the delicate process without changing the milk.

In the olden days, many people were made sick from unpurificd milk, often without knowing the reason, But we have nothing at all to fear ‑ if our milk is pasteurized. It is one of the most complete of all foods, full of proteins for body building, calcium for strong bones and healthy teeth, minerals and vitamins. Andy, like any sensible person, enjoys plenty of refreshing milk every day of his life.