N.Y. Agriculture & Markets Law § 56-b: Determination of bacteria in milk and/or cream where purchase or settlement is made therefor on the basis of bacterial count

§ 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.