The San Francisco call., 1899-11-15
THE ADUl. .TERATED FOOD PROBLEM

d FTER long rest the Senate Committee en-
| \ gagged in Investigation OF the extent 20
which food -icles sale in this country are
either adulterated or wholly compounded Of some
thing quite different from the articles they purpor to
be has resumed its hearings and we are once more
receiving information which will increase the demand
for the enactment OF pure food law II is gratifying
have the subject brought back to public attention
at this time for Congress will soon assemble and
efforts should be made throughout the country to
bring about the OF the desired law at this
session
The recent hearings have added nothing OF any
particular value to the information already made
public In fact, the agitation for protection to the
producers OF pure foods against the ruinous compet-
ing of the manufacturers OF fraudulent articles has
been carried extensively that all who take any
interest in the matter all fairly familiar with the
subject 1t is very we'll known that almost every ar
ticle of food in the market has fraudulent article
competing with it, and that the frauds are so in
geniousy devised that while in many cases injurious
to health they cannot be detected by either sight
taste or smell
The evil of the fraudulent trade is not due to adul-
teratons only. In many cases harm is done by sell
ing unadulterated foods under labels representing
them as something different from what they are. For
example, the darymen OF New York by careful st,-
pervison of the cheese product OF that State, made
New York cheese standard article of trade for
it high reputation and gained profitable market in
London. No sooner was the repute of the New York
cheese known, however than fraudulent cheese
makers in other States put the New York label upon
inferior cheese and sent it abroad The result was
the ruin of the market which the New York men had
built up. In that fraud there no adulteraon. II
was simply case OF false labelling
Many similar wrongs done in the same way
Some time ago in reviewing the fruit packing trade
in that city the Philadelphia Record noted that some
enterprising firms there have been buying up dried
plums in districts where they are cheap and putting
them the market labeled California prunes" The
Philadelphia men not the only packers who put
California labels worthless or inferior fruits
There is great corporation in New York that grinds
UP appe-cores and apple peelings and refuse apples
that are unfit for drying, and out of the stuff COM
pounds ellies jams, preserves OF all kinds and by
fiavorng it in various ways makes it serve for apr
cot peach, plum, orange currant or any other kind
of fruit conserve there may be demand for
1t is hardly worth while to gather further informa
ton the subject The people are aware that almos
every article in the market from Injuries to med
cines is either aduerated initiated. What is
needed is not more knowledge on that subject but Z
clearer idea OF the most efficient remedy Up to this
time the best that has been proposed is natona
label law requiring every article to bear upon its labe
conspcuously true statement of what the article Is
and where, when and by whom it was packed Righ
labelling will go long way toward solving the diff
Guilty OF the problem, and requiring it is clearl,
within the power of Congress to provide