The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-09
OF American Canned Meats Is
Very High.
THE PROCESS DESCRIBED
Impartial Tests by Food Experts Have
Demonstrated That Little Nutri-
ment Is Lost-Inspected by
the Government.


value of American canned meats, tend
ing to injure foreign and domestic trade
in these goods, Secretary Wilson has
called upon the director of the office of
experiment stations for a statement of
the conclusions of scientific experts on
this matter. This statement is as fol-
lows:
The high nutritive value of American
canned meats has been established re-
peatedly by thorough and impartial
tests conducted by scientific experts.
Some years ago DR.. w. O. Atwater, pro
fessor of chemistry at Wesleyan uni
versity. Middletown Conn, began eX-
tended investigations of the nutritive
value of foods Later this work was
continued by the department of agri-
culture with funds appropriated by
congress for the purpose, the inVesti-
cation being assigned to the office Of eX
pertinent stations and Professor At
waters services secured as special
agent in charge. These Investigations
are still in progress, and large amount
of information has been secured. and
the results published in the form of
bulletins. Educational, philanthropical
and other institutions throughout the
country have co-operated in this work.
The food problem has been very care
fully studied in Europe. Koenig, Rub
ner, Etinger, StutZe> Gautier Fass-
bender, SolntZer and other eminent
authorities have been making such in
vestigations in France, Germany, Rus
STA and other European countries. The
value of different foods for men engag-
ed in ordinary occupations, for soldiers
in time of peace and war, and persons
in various other conditions of life has
been studied. A part of these investiga-
tions in America and abroad has had
to do with meats, fresh and preserved
In communication to this department,
Professor Atwater says:
1T is unfortunate that the public at
large have so little appreciation of the
nutritive value of canned meats. They
are really cooked meats, Invested of the
inedible portions, bone, gristle. etc.
which are found in fresh meats. In the
cooking and canning, which is of the
nature of boiling rather than roasting
water is expelled, but the amount of nu-
tritive material removed is very small,
indeed. so that a pound of ordinary
canned meats have on the average
much more nutriment that the same
weight of the fresh meat from which it
is prepared. The removal of the, bone
and, part of the water, while So little
nutriment is taken away, leaves the
meat in less bulky and more concen-
trated form, so that pound for pC,Ind
the canned meat has higher nutritiye
value than the fresh meat In a large
NUMBER OF analyses of fresh and canned
meats, collected at Chicago duringAthe
worlds fair and in other parts of the
country before and since that time and
analyzed under my direction, the pro-
portions of the nutrtive ingredients in
the canned meats have been found to he
larger than in the ordinary fresh meats
among the analyses referred to- some
OF the largest proportions of protein
We're found in the boiled meats. Such
prepared meats, made of good material
ana properly canned or otherwise pre-
served, are worthy of the very high es
TEEN in which they have long been
held
ne charge of inferior nutritive value
When applied to properly canned meats
needs only investigation for it's refuta-
tion. The experience of almost every
FAMILY has shown that such articles are
satisfactory foods. Man requires four
classes of food ingredients proper for
the maintenance of life: Protein or nj
trogenous matter, as is found in the
lean OF meats, caSein (curd) of milk
ana gluten OF wheat: carbohydrates as
sugar, starch and allied substances; fat,
as Dutter fat of meats, etc: mineral
matter. such as phosphates and other
salts.
Meat is one of the chief sources Of
protein in the daily food, as shown by
chemical analysis. 1t is composed Of
water, protein or heterogeneous matter
Tat and small percentage of mineral
< matter. The nitrogenous matter Is
maze up very largely of myosin, the
basis of muscle. Meat contains also n
small percentage of albumen. which ;s
extracted by cold water, but is cnagu-
lated by heat. This and a small nro
portion OF other heterogeneous substance
anu mineral matters are practically all
Il Whlch can be extracted by water. If
meat is plunged into boiling water when
cookeu, as Is commonly done in can
ming, extremely little can be extracted
IN preparing the meat for canning large
pieces are put in watts of boiling water
and thus cooked. This softens the meat
makes it more tender and facilitates
tHe separation OF bone and gristle After
these are removed the meat is cut into
pieces of proper size for the can, The
top is then soldered on the can. but a
N small mole Is left, through which air
anu steam escape IN the heating of the
1 can, which follows. This h, Atinp also
Kills the bacteria. The hole is then
closed By drop of melted solder and
the can Is Theoretically sealed The cans
are then tested to see whether this seal
ing has been done so as to protect the
meat from deteriorating. To this end
they are Kept In warm room for q
number of days. If the bacteria have
not been killed the meat will decom-
pose, gases will be produced and the
cans will swell The number of cans
that swell and thus indicate imperfect
handling is said to average one-fourth
of per cent. The meat in them il
thrown into the waste heap with the in
testines and other refuse and made into
fertilizers.
by TINS common manufacturing pro-
cess 1t will be impossible to remove from
the meat which goes into the cans any
considerable part of the actual nutrj-
ment. The chief difference between the
meat as prepared in this way and that
ordinarily cooked in the household is
that the canned meat does not contain
the bone and gristle, which are not edj-
Bile. The averages from analyses of
American meat products now available
give percentages of protein in fresh
beef: Rump LAG per cent; tenderloin.
1876 per cent, and other cuts not far
from the same amount. The averages