The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1906-07-13

cretS, many have refused to do business
! in those states.
There have been no more enthusiastic
supporters of federal pure food law
than the packers of Maryland. and the
! one Just adopted was satisfactory in
every respect, with the exception OF one
clause, which required that the weight OF
the contents and the amounts of each in
gredient be published. This we fought,
and SUCCESSFULLY We were ably cham
pioned by congressman John Oil, Smith
and Talbot, and the clause was defeated.
So the bill as it stands today is accept.
able to us.
AS l have already explained, it is i'm
possible for packer to pack and fulfil
the conditions established by every state,
owing 10 their wide variances. So we
have solved the question by deciding to
guarantee absolutely that every can that
goes out of Maryland will be in exact
conformity with the requirements of The
federal law There should be no conflict
between the two laws, and believe the
state laws will either he so amended as
to conform to the federal law or they
will fall into disuse.
Now, then, as to the second point.
There is clause of the bill which pro-
hibits the use of coloring matter to con-
ceal inferiority.' Packers heretofore
have been in the habit of making use of a
vegetable coloring matter, purely harm
less, as attested to by physicians, in or
der to give a uniform color to tomatoes.
This is not used to conceal inferiority,
but i'll order that there may be no cause
for misrepresentation, we have decided to
do away with the practice. The result
will be that the tomatoes may not have
the same bright, crimson appearance
which adds much to the pleasure of the
dish; but there may be some green spots
here and there, where the tomato was
not equally colored by the sun.
"The law prescribes against the use of
preservatives. but that does not affect
us. for the plain reason that we have
simply no use for preservatives. Heat is
the preventative of the packer Canned
goods put up at packing plant are purer
than those put up by the housewife in
her kitchen, for the reason that she cam
not subject her fruit to the same degree
of heat as can the packer. Every thing
put up at packinghouse is subjected to
240 degrees, which pastcurizes the fruit
or meat. When put in a can it would
keep for a century. Take a can of string
beans. for instance. 1t consists of moth
ing but the beans, water and little salt.
Subjected to this great heat, they are in
a condition to keep almost forever. For
a packer TO use preservatives would be
waste of money.
THE butcher. the public has learned to
its sorrow, must inject prcservatives into
meat i'll order to keep ii any length of
time. The packer could take that same
piece of meat, slice it up, cook it at the
enormous heat mentioned and it would
keep indefinitely. SO the preservative
clause has no effect one way or the other
on packers.
thereafter, then, all goods going out of
Maryland will be in absolute conformity
to the Federal Pure Food Law, and ell
tirely free from coloring matter"
Maryland furnishes more canned goods
than any five statesin the Union. 1t will
be interesting to see whether or not other
packing ccnters follow her lead in the
matter.