The Saint Paul globe., 1903-12-27

. 6SN ATIONAL pure food laws are
greatly needed" said State Dairy
and Food Commissioner Mcconnell yes
terday MANY of the states now have
excellent laws, and much has been ac-
complished by state legislation; but
properly drawn national law would give
us a line to hew to and would bring
about uniformity of standard. Without
that each state must act for itself and
its scope must be limited"
The great extent to which adultera-
tion is practiced in the preparation of
foods is but little known to the ordi-
nary consumer. The chief, If not the
sole motive Of adulteration is to de-
crease the cost of production and
thereby increase the percentage of
profit, and, in this age of progress and
invention, mans ingenuity has devised
cheap substitutes for many articles of
food and adulterants that will lessen
the cost of many others.
Authorizations are so skillfully COW
cred that the deception can only be dis
covered by the skill of the chemist,
and often the genuine and bogus in
gradients are so mixed that the spuri-
Gus character of the goods is almost
beyond detection. There is scarcely
food product on the market that is not,
to some extent, tampered with or imi-
tated, and many articles of common
utility that do not come under the head
of food are extensively replaced in the
market by mixed or counterfeit goods.
Liquors in Disguise.
BY reason of the operation of the
Etate dairy and food department in
that particular field, public attention has
recently been directed toward liquors
that are masquerading under names
to which they have not the slightest
claim, and, in the same manner, not
long ago considerable publicity was
given to the various limitations of lin
seed oil. So-called maple" sugars and
syrups, that are in reality made almost
entirely Of common brown sugar; and
spices that are mixed with cheap fill
ing or packed in short-weight packages
have been brought to light from time
10 time through some unusually deter
mined campaign of the state inspectors.
But, in general, the public has but
slight conception of the extent to which
adulteration of ordinary commodities
is carried on, or the vast work of the
dairy and food department in its efforts
to suppress this mercantile counterfeit
ing through enforcement Of the laws.
Beside the dairy and food commits
sioner and his assistant and the secre-
tary Of the department, there are eleven
inspectors constantly in the field, some
inspecting dairies, creameries and
cheese factories, and the stables Of
dairy farms, and others looking after
the enforcement of the pure food laws.
The state also maintains q laboratory
with a chemist and an assistant who
are kept constantly at work in the an
Rlysis of food samples
Many Samples Anaiyzed
In the course of the two years COM
prised in the latest report of the de-
partment there were analyzed in the
laboratory 10,119 samples. Those fig
ures show the extent of the work, and
the fact that 3,449 of the samples ex-
amined were found to be either adult
Grated or otherwise Illegal will give
some idea of the exetnt to which food
products are doctored.
Through persistent effort on the part
of successive members of the state
dairy and food commission and others
who have interested themselves in the
cause, Minnesota now has laws that
have greatly reduced the sale of spuri-
Gus goods in the state. Even now these
laws are not believed to be perfect in
all respects, but as far as they go they
are looked upon by many other states
as a model to emulate.
From the Investigations of the state
udIy anu Ioou department II mas Deen
learned that some articles that are
quite extensively adulterated in other
localities are sold pure in Minnesota
This is noticeably the case as regards
flour. 1t has been found easy and
profitable in some places, particularly
In the Southern states, to adulterate
flour by mixing with 1t a white earth
known as mineraline, which is quite ex-
tensively found in North Carolina. Min
eraline is said by chemists to be abso-
lutely indissoluble in the stomach and
its injurious properties led to the en-
actment of very stringent national law
which has practically put a stop to its
use. The principal ingredient now used