ABSTRACT

In the 1800s, many of the larger U.S. cities, to have enough milk to feed their rapidly growing populations, kept herds of thousands of dairy cows, most of which were poorly fed and housed under deplorable conditions. As a result raw milk distributed by these dairies, and consumed mostly by young children, often contained dangerous pathogens which caused diseases such as typhoid fever, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, and diphtheria, just to name a few. With many infants dying as a result of these illnesses, the city and county health departments began to set up rules and regulations to control production facilities and set quality standards for milk sold in their cities. Milk produced in compliance with these early local requirements was often classified as "certified" or "pure." In some areas, a heating process was required for "drinking" milk, which eventually became known as pasteurization.