Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-05-18
FOOD AND DAIRY ASSOCIATIONS
OPPOSED TO RECENT PREsER.
NATIVE RULING.
WANT INSPECTION LAW
FOR FOOD FACTORIES
Supervision Similar to That Of Pack
ing Houses to Be Asked in Bill Pre-.
pared-special Committee to Review
Work Of Remsen Board and pr.
Wiley.
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
Washington, May 1S.-It is highly
probable that at its next annual
meeting the association of state and
National food and dairy departments
will take steps toward the introduction
in congress of a bill placing under
government supervision factories in
which foods are manufactured for in
terstate commerce. Such a bill would
follow the lines of the meat inspection
bill which was passed some years ago
and which has worked so satisfactor-
| lily
This association, which was SO in
strumental in securing the passage of
the pure food and drug act, as we'll as
the meat inspection act, is not at all
satisfied with the decision of the three
then secretaries of the treasury, COM
merce and labor, and agriculture, that
unlimited quantities of benzoate of
soda may be used in the preservation
OF food products as long as the pres
ence and amount are stated on the la
bel. The impression prevails that this
decision was reached by the Remsen
board of chemists, but the fact is that
this board had no power to make such
ruling. 1t reported it's conclusions
| drawn from the results of a series of
experiments made by three of the
members of the board who fed benzoate
of soda to healthy young men for GER
tain periods. The board reached the
conclusion that doses up to grams
per day "has not been found to ex-
ert any deleterious effect on the gen
eral health nor to act as poison in
the general acceptance of the term"
However, the report continued that;
In some directions there were slight
notifications in certain physiological
processes, the exact significance of
which modification is not known" On
the strength OF this report the three
ecretaries-Cortelyou Straus and
Wilson-just before the Roosevelt adj
ministration retired. Issued a circular
permitting the use of this drug in I'M
limited quantities in any and all foods
and food products 1t is presumed that
the Remsen board in it's experiments
employed what is known as the medic
inal benzoate of soda, which is pre-
pared from aromatic gums, rather than
the commercial benzoate Of soda, COM
monty employed as preservative.
which is manufactured either from
coal tar or the urine Of horses and
cattle
The pure food laws of the several
states which have been enacted since
the national pure food law have gener-
ally been drawn along the same lines
as the national law. The action of the
government in thus generously recog-
nizing benzoate of soda as the sole au-
thorized chemical preservative, be-
comes matter of supreme import
ance to the various heads of the state
food departments. Most of them have
heretofore followed DR.. H w. Wiley,
chief of the bureau of chemistry of the
department of agriculture, who so
strongly condemned this preservative,
and have accepted the results of his
experiments without question Until the
Remsen board reported, the weight of
medical opinion was against the use
of the drug as a preservative in foods
and even since that report number
of medical association have gone on
record as against the consumption Of
any foods containing it. particularly by
children, aged persons and invalids and
especially by those suffering from tu-
berculosis or kidney tr.>-',le, which
diseases are peculiarly s. >:eptible to
the effect of even small uoses of the
drug
Because of the reluctance of the state
food danarfnnantc
clusions of the Remsen board as final
the executive committee directed
President j. @. Emery, of the associa-
ton Of state and national food and
dairy departments, to appoint a spec
DIR. Wiley and the bureau Of chemistry,
and of the Remsen board, and to report
to the association at it's next meeting.
This committee consists of DIR. NJ A.
Scovell, of Kentucky, chairman; Prof.
w. NJ. Allen, North Carolina; DR.. E.
H. S. Bailey, Kansas; Prof H. E.
Barnard, Indiana; DR.. Richard Fischer,
Wisconsin; Prof. Julius Hortvet. Min
nesota; Prof. M e. Jaffa, California;
Prof. E. E. Ladd, North Dakota; Prof
Floyd w. Robinson. Michigan; Prof.
James H. Shepard, South Dakota, and
Dr. Charles D. Woods, Maine.
1t is understood that this board will
not only take cognizance of the physi-
illogical effect of small doses of BEN
zoate of soda administered to perfect
ly healthy young men, but will also
investigate the. sanitary conditions of
canning factories which utilize the
preservative in their ketchup, chilli
sauce, jams, jellies and preserves,
soups and boullions, apple and peach
buffers, mince meat, etc. It will also
examine into the charge so often pre-
ferred that benzoate of soda is pri-
marily used to disguise the presence
Of impaired fruits and vegetables and
to arrest and prevent further decay
both before and after the product is
prepared. Such conditions can not be
remedied under the pure food and drug
act while benzoate Of soda Is allowed
to be used and for this reason 1t is
proposed that the canning factories
should be placed on the same plane as
the meat packing houses, and under
federal inspection. Such a bill would
probably be considered by the house
committee on agriculture which had
charge Of the meat inspection bill, i1-
stead Of the committee on interstate
and foreign commerce, which consid-
cred the pure food and drug bill.