Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1907-12-26
ANENT PURE FOOD
state Commission Quotes the
Law Regarding Certain Foods.
BUTTER MUST Be WRAPPED
MAKERS Name, Place of Busl-
ness and Weight Required.

We take the following from the
the State commissioners report and
trust the same will be OF interest
to our readers.
BenZoate of Soda.
Since the publication BY this De.
partment of Bulletin No. 8, the
National Pure food department. has
issued food Inspection Decision
No. 76 dealing with the use of
preservatives in foods. This is of
particular interest to Idaho people,
because of the ruling upon the use
OF benzoate of soda. At the time
that the National Pure Food Act
was under consideration in Con.
gress some manufacturers of food
products made a long aud bitter
fight to prevent the act from giving
power to the Board of Food and
Drug inspection, to establish stand
ards or decide the wholesomenese
OF food contents. Many of these
manufacturers who so bitterly
fought this provision of the Pure
Food Act, frankly stated that their
opposition was based upon the fear
that the Pure Food Board would
prohibit the use of benzoate OF soda
in food products. The Senate
Committe had a number of hear
ings at which evidence for and
against this drug was presented
However, the act finally became a
law, thanks to great extent, to
the efforts of senator Hey yburn, of
this State, giving the Board power
to establish standards. This
Board, in turn, gave every oppor-
tunity to manufacturers of food
products to present their views.
1t is an interesting fact that while
some manufactured without the
use of achemical preservative, OF
which benzoate of soda is probably
the least harmful, one manufactur-
er answered these arguments by
bringing to the door of the Agri-
cultural Building two-horse truck
load of these products which were
free from any preventative what
ever The inspection Board finally
made their decision prohibiting the
use of benzoate of soda in any food
product, giving the manufacturer
the privilege of continuing it's use
for the pack of 1907 only. This
decision is very gratifying to the
Pnre Food Commission OF this
State, as our rules have, for several
years, prohibited the use of this
preservative except in tomato cat
sup. The ruling in this state has
been vigorously opposed by many
manufacturers and the enforcement
has met with considerable opposi.
ton. Therefore, this ruling of the
National Department, after exten'
sive investigation and numerous
hearings is complete vindicatiOr
of the stand taken and maintained
by your Pure Food Commission
Dealers should, therefore, bear il
mind, ti.at while the National De
partment will allow the use of ben
zoate of soda for the pack of 1907
that the sale within this State o
food products except tomato catsup
pack Of 1907, containing this pres
ervative is illegal, and any violation
of the law will be vigorously prose
cuted.
Short Weight Butter.
There is probably no provision
of our Pure Food Law which ha
benefited SO many people as tina
provision compelling lnanufactur
ers of butter, either creamery @
dairy, to use wrapper, giving th
makers, name, place of bushes
and the net weight in ounces
These requirements have raised tn
standards of dairy butter to wor
derful extent. Before the passag
of this law, the dairy butter offere
for sale in the stores of the Stat
was a very uncertain quality, wit
a great variation in the weight
the packages. The farmers an
the majority of the creameries I
Idaho have welcomed this law an
have honestly lived up to its r.
auirements, but unfortunately
few of our creameries and man
out side of the State have made
practice of selling packages labellt
l6 OF. which only contained Il
and 15, thus working hardsh
upon the honest man who puts
an honest package with an hone
weight.
Rules and Regulations
Rule l. Milk sold by milk We
doris or milk peddlers shall not CO
tain less than 3 per cent butter
and percent solids other than I,
A can containing milk from whi
cream has been removed or havi
less thon 3 percent butter fat OF