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A Method for the Microscopic Examination of Butter

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan

ABSTRACT

Many of the organisms of importance in the sanitary and industrial control of butter are not easily detected by routine plating procedures, therefore microscopic examination of butter is advantageous under many circumstances. Hammer and Nelson (1) devised a method which involves the separation of the fatty and non-fatty portions of the butter with the aid of heat and centrifugal force; 0.01 cc. of the non-fatty portion is spread over 1, 4, or 8 square centimeters, stained, and examined by the technique described by Breed (2). The value of such a method for both research and control purposes is obvious.

The following method was designed primarily to eliminate some of the practical difficulties involved in the use of the 0.01 cc. capillary pipette and the centrifuge, and to provide a method which would lend itself to routine examination of large numbers of samples.

The butter to be examined is melted by heating to 45° C. for a period not to exceed 15 minutes, after which it is agitated sufficiently to insure a homogeneous sample.