CAN

CAN (French: bidon), a vessel made of tinned iron, cylindrical or quadrangular with rounded corners, for storing and transporting products (milk, butter, etc.). A milk can (flask), sometimes holding several buckets, has a tightly fitted metal lid, often with a rubber gasket. Cans are washed with a soda solution or lye and rinsed with clean water. Milk cans are additionally steamed and aired. Airing is done in places protected from external contamination or in enclosed, clean, well-lit, and thoroughly ventilated premises. Airing cans near livestock yards, manure storage tanks, liquid manure receivers, etc. is not permitted. For tinning milk cans, pure tin without lead impurities is recommended. Foreign legislation permits lead content in tin for tinning vessels from 0.3% (France and Belgium) to 1% (Germany). According to research conducted in 1927 at the Moscow Sanitary Institute on the tinning of 47 milk cans, the lead content reached 35.7%, which is unacceptable. Damage to the tinning of milk cans causes rust to appear, which in turn leads to the formation of milk iron, giving the milk an unpleasant taste, which may even be noticeable in butter made from such milk, as well as in butter stored in untinned iron cans or in cans with 'damaged tinning.'