Manual of Naval Preventive Medicine
Chapter 1: Food Service Sanitation
Section III: Sanitary Requirements and Controls for Milk and Milk Products

Department of the Navy
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

1. Single-service containers of milk and liquid milk products must be refrigerated at temperatures of 40 degrees F or below until served. The tops of the containers will be clean and must not be submerged in water or covered with ice for cooling purposes. All milk and milk products dispensed from bulk milk dispensers must be homogenized. Temperature in the dispenser cabinet must be maintained within the range of 32 to 40 degrees F. A nonmercury thermometer is an integral part of the dispensing cabinet. See MIL-STD-175.

2. Multiuse dispenser tubes are prohibited. Single service tubes (other than precut tubes) must be cut with a sanitized cutting instrument at a point l/4 inch below the termination of the dispensing mechanism.

3. Food-contact (milk-contact) surfaces must not be exposed to manual contact, droplet contamination, dust, flies, or other sources of contamination.

4. Dispenser cabinets must be defrosted at frequent intervals to prevent formation of ice deposits.

5. When the pitcher method of recombining and dispensing milk is used, care must be taken to ensure that pitchers have been cleaned and sanitized prior to use. Long-handled, corrosion-resistant spoons or electric beaters, used for reconstituting the milk, must be cleaned and sanitized prior to use. Only cool potable water will be used for reconstitution. Reconstituted milk left at the end of a meal period will be used for cooking purposes or will be discarded.

6. The use of pitchers for dispensing milk may be approved by the medical officer (unit surgeon in the case of the Marine Corps) or his designated representative for use in small, private messes using "family style service" provided the following standards are adhered to:

a. Milk will only be dispensed from corrosion resistant stainless steel or glass pitchers which are washed and sanitized between each use.

b. Milk remaining in the pitcher at the end of a meal period must be discarded.