Begin Using Borden's Grade A Milk Irradiated, Vitamin D
date: label: date made
content: ca 1930s
notes: label: Description
content: Green, orange, and white pin-back button featuring a stylized sun and rays design. The button reads: Begin Using / Borden's / Grade A Milk / Irradiated / Vitamin D. Button also includes the American Medical Association seal: "Accepted by the American Medical Assoc. Committee on Foods" and the statement: "Irradiated by Steenbock process Patent # 1680818"
label: Description
content: In the early 1920s, Harry Steenbock (1886-1967), a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, developed a process to increase the vitamin D in food products such as milk by exposing them to ultra-violet radiation. Vitamin D was critical for preventing rickets, a common nutritional deficiency disease. In 1925 Steenbock helped establish the non-profit Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) in order to manage and license the irradiation process as well as other patents developed at the University. The irradiation process was patented in1928, US patent 1680818, and assigned to WARF. Borden's began irradiating milk in 1934.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0224.10
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0224.10
label: accession number
content: 1986.0224
objectType: label: Object Name
content: advertising device, button
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/4 in x 3 in; .635 cm x 7.62 cm