56-b. Determination of bacteria in milk and/or cream where purchase or settlement is made therefor on the basis of bacterial count. In milk-receiving or manufacturing plants and other places using methods approved by the commissioner for determining the bacterial count in milk and/or cream, where the result of such determination is to be used wholly or in part as a basis for payment or settlement for such milk or cream, or where the proceeds of co-operative creameries or such milk-receiving or manufacturing plants are allotted on the basis of the bacterial count, no pipette or syringe shall be used in such determination unless the same has been legibly and indelibly marked with the letters "N. Y." by the commissioner or by his duly authorized representative. No such pipette or syringe shall be so marked unless it has been found upon examination to be so constructed and graduated as to deliver accurately the amount of liquid required for the determination. The provisions of this article, however, shall not preclude the use of a pipette already marked "S. B." or "N. Y.", by the director of the New York state agricultural experiment station.
Whenever the bacterial count of such milk and/or cream is used wholly or in part as a basis for payment or settlement for such milk and/or cream, or whenever the bacterial count affects the classification of the milk and/or cream as received from the producer, or the acceptance or rejection of such milk and/or cream by the operator of a milk-receiving or manufacturing plant, no person or persons shall report or record a larger or smaller bacterial count than that obtained by the actual examination of the milk and/or cream so delivered by the producer. The commissioner or persons employed by him for that purpose may at any time inspect the equipment and assist in making bacterial counts of milk and/or cream received at any milk-receiving or manufacturing plant or other place where counts are made for the purpose of determining the accuracy of the counts so made.
Any person or persons using other than the properly marked pipettes or syringes or crediting any patron delivering milk and/or cream with a larger or smaller bacterial count than that obtained by the actual count of the bacteria in the milk and/or cream so delivered and as determined by the method or methods approved by the commissioner shall be deemed to have violated the provisions of the agriculture and markets law.
Last modified: February 3, 2019