El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-06
Food AdufterdtiOn.
Enormous Pressure Upon Man.
ufacturers to Cheaper Produce
tiOn-Preservativ and
the Public Health.

= tiOn-Preservatives and
4 the Public Health.
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On the one hand, it is necessary to
remember that chemistry is replacing
natural with laboratory products of
equal or superior quality and at re-
duction of cost and, on the other, that
there is good deal of force in the say
ing so often attributed to Richard Cob
den that adulteration is a form of COM
petition. If a manufacturer can cheap
en- the process of production, he is IN
der an enormous pressure to do SO,
says the New York Journal of Com
merce. He is usually less susceptible
to considerations of public health than
he is to those Of his own profits. He
has to take care of himself, and the
public has means which it should use
of taking care of itself in the aggre-
gate, though individually the public is
helpless.
We have no disposition, and we think
public sentiment has none, to attack
every new ingredient or process. Some
of them are Improvements and others
may be, but the manufacturer, as we
have said, takes care of himself and
not of the public, and the public must
find out for itself whether the new
processes and ingredients are whole
some or not, and if not it must find
means of restraining their use. The
attacks upon new ingredients have
come in more than one instance from
the producers of the old ones, who see
their market threatened, and it is as
necessary to guard against the self in
tereSt of this class as against that of
the manufacturer.
Salicylic acid is extensively used for
the preservation of beer. 1t has also
been much used for the preservation Of
meat and milk. 1t is potent medicinal
remedy, less used, we believe, now
than when it was first introduced, De
cause it's extensive use is believed to
be decidedly injurious. This creates
strong presumption against its use as
food preservative. But it is not conclu-
sive. Salicylic acid may be injurious in
large doses and absolutely innocuous
in small doses. Half an ounce in a bar
rel of beer seems very small amount.
But a large part of the community
drinks beer freely every day In the
year. Even at the rate of only half an
ounce to the barrel a considerable
amount may be taken into the system
by regular beer drinker. 1t is desira-
BILE to secure definite information upon
this point. Scientists are not agreed.
But the testimony of physicians, chem
lists and PSYCHOLOGISTS, who have no pc
cuniary interest in the use or nonuse
of the acid, ought to be definite enough
to serve as basis for legislation. Sal
fcylic acid has now been in use as a
medicine and as preservative so long
that there must be a good deal of
knowledge of it's effects upon the hui
man system. Any preservative which
is innocent is Of very great impor-
lance in these days of concentration of
production, when so much of our food
and drink must, be prepared at great
distance from the consumer. But the
public is excusable for regarding I'M
familiar preservatives with a good deal
Of suspicion.
The principal reason for using glu-
coSe is its cheapnesS. 1t has about two
thirds the saccharine strength of sugar,
SO that when the public gets glucose it
gets less sweetness than it expects, but
probably all it pays for. There is no
doubt that it is extensively used in
beer, strip, confectionery and pre-
serves. AS a cheap sweetening it is to
be welcomed, and whether it is Il
wholesome sweetening is a question to
be determined by the testimony of i'm |
partial and competent chemists and |
physicians.
There would seem to be no reason |
why compounded foods and drinks |
should not be required to bear a state |
ment of their ingredients. 1t might |
hurt their sale at first, but it may be |
argued that the public is entitled to
know what it Is eating and drinking. |
If the compound is not injurious, it's
frank designation as such will not per-
defeat its use. Twenty years
ago the use of cottonseed oil in lard
was regarded as an adulteration, and
who used it did not
take pains to inform the public of the
fact. Now compounds of cottonseed
oil are sold as such for culinary pur-
poses, and advertisers set forth the
of vegetable oil over ami
NAL fat. If the article is wholesome,
the acknowledgment of its use by
will not long prevent
the public from patronizing their prod
ucts.
India Rubber Industry.