ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a case study on Sweetened condensed milk. It illustrates how industry dealt with nutritional evidence. The study covers the period 1890-1940, reflecting the age of the discovery of vitamins, which gave a new understanding of the relationship between food and health. The main sources of this study are two Dutch professional dairy journals and their British counterpart the Milk Industry. The Dutch dairy industry took an early interest in milk condensing. The British regulations caused much alarm in the Dutch dairy world. The British dairy industry considered milk consumption too low and tried to encourage it through intensive publicity campaigns, in particular in urban areas. In Britain a report on condensed milk in 1923 concluded that all of the investigated samples contained living bacteria. This caused consternation and reinforced actions against condensed milk and the trade press stated with satisfaction that the report had dealt a very severe blow to the condensed milk manufacturers.