The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-09-19
FOOD ADULTERATI0N.

fCUU AUUL EnH IlUWs
The association of state and national food and
dairy departments held convention on Mackinac
island the historic little spot of earth situated at
head of Lakes Michigan and Huron last month.
and among other things brought out in the discus
sion of recent state and national pure food legsla
ton was that widespread aduteration of food prod
ucts is being carried on, Notwithstanding the ma
tional pure food law and state regulation in many
of the states 1t was asserted that preservatves
used in food products and are absolutely essential
in those products made of inferior quality of raw
material The preservative mostly used is benzoate
of soda and it was asserted that chemically treated
products that contain this drug generally contain
more than the one-tenth of one per cent which is
acknowledged on the wrapper. Further than this.
one man present at the convention gave it as his
opinion that all products whose manufacturers were
fighting for the privilege of using preservaives
qured the preservave to conceal and preserve poor
grades of raw material and to destroy the i'll effects
of bad sanitation in the factories where they were
made.
William P. Hapgood of Indianapolis said "Over
so per cent of the tomato catsup on the market is
made from the skins and cores and rotten tomatoes
l know of not one single packer of tomato catsup
who is fighting for the of chemicals in his prod
uct who is not using more or less of this waste ma
terial"
L. S. Dow of Pittsburg is quoted thus: ''When
the public learns that by of benzoae of soda
the INSCRIPTIONS manufacturer is able to convert
into passabe and not UNBEATABLE foods in point of
flavor substances repelent to the point of extreme
disgust public and legislative support of the objects
of your association will be forthcoming in greatly
increased measure"
Sebastian Mueller is quoted to this effect:
"There is no honest food product on the market to-
day made out of fruits and vegetables which cannot
be successfully and satisfactorily packed without
the aid of chemical preservatives."
The opinions and results of the observation of
these men are especially interesting to the house
wives at this time right in the midst of the canning
season. The judicious housewife puts up catsup.
and she has to any preservative to make it
keep. She cans peaches and pears, and makes jams
and ielies and benzoate of soda is no part of the
combination. 1t stands to reason therefore, that
manufacturers do not need to use any artificial
preservative if their products made in clean
adjustments, and of frst-cass raw materials. But
tomato catsup made of the refuse from the peeling
tables and of the inferior grades of tomatoes, in
various stages of decomposition will not keep with
out more or less of the preservative which most of
the pure food laws permit.
The pure food laws were made to protect the
consuming public from the INSCRIPTIONS manufac-
turer whose desire for greater profits led him from
the paths of honesty and square dealing to the det
riment of the health of the consuming public One
manufacturer present at the session urged the en-
forcement of the pure food laws with srictness He
said that preservatives were only substitute for
cleanliness and urged that all preservatives be ban
ished from the factories by statute.
The suggestion is termed drastic" legislation.
But if the conclusions of the gentlemen quoted are
correct that is the kind of legislation that is
needed.
1t seems from these opinions from men in the
business that the public should insist on products
without chemical preservatives, and that legislation
should be enacted to absolutely prevent the use of
chemicals.