Babcock Test.


6 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

What is the babcock test?


6 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Tests for butterfat......the value of your milk is in the fat.
I 'borrowed' this from Wikipedia:

Motivation

Until the 1890s, dishonest farmers could water down their milk or remove some cream before selling it to the factories because milk was paid for by volume. Honest farmers, as well as those that produced naturally rich milk, were not being compensated fairly.
Babcock Test process

Stephen Moulton Babcock researched the problem at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and developed the following process:

Measure milk into graduated test tube. You usually take 18 grams of milk or 17.6 milliliters.
Add 17.6 milliliters of 90-92% sulfuric acid.
Centrifuge at 50°C.
Measure fat which will be floating on top of liquid in the test tube.

Principle of Babcock test
Key to this process is that everything in milk except the fat dissolves in sulfuric acid. The fat floats to the top. The centrifuge ensures complete separation with no bubbles in the fat, and the fat content can be measured using the graduations on the test tube and knowing the initial amount of milk used.

When I was in grad school for engineering at the U of Wisc in the late sixties we'd go across the street to Babcock Hall for their famous ice cream. They have an experimental milk laboratory that does every thing MILK......and ice cream is sure milk...... Man, that was good stuff!

God bless.


6 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum

Thank you for posting


6 years ago via Forums | Front Porch Forum