Evening journal., 1912-10-15
FOOD INSPECTORS
MUST Be SLEUTHS


has 40 inspectors constantly employ
ed in running down violators of the
pure rood and drugs law. Walter G..
Campbell. young attorney scientist
of the Burean Of Chemistry, Is their
chief. The evidence procured by the in
spectors is presented to the Pure Food
Board, which decides whether or not
suit shall be brought
A large element In the enforcement
Of the law is the analysis of samples
and examination OF labels. The one
is to determine whether the product
is pure; the other is to ascertain
whether it is misrepresented to the
purchaser
If the Pure Food Board decides that
the case shall be prosecuted it is
turned over to the Department of JUS
tice and the local United States Dis
tfict Attorney is instructed to pro-
ceed. The inspector produces the evil
dence upon which the suit is brought
Aside from this there is the proceed
ure of seizure and destruction of unfit
goods that may be resorted to. Here
the yiolator merely loses the value Of
the goods
Wide Range of Duties.
These 40 inspectors look after milk
shipped from one State to another,
canned goods, beverages, medicines
all not Of local manufacture that goes
into peoples stomechs, excerpts all
meats. which are handled by another
inspection service.
A certain dealer in liquors in Cri-
cago was suspected of counterfeiung
foreign wines He actually imported
certain amount, probably per cent
OF all he sold With this as nucleus
he manufactured the imitation goods
and also duplicated bottles and dupli-
cate labels His customers we're un-
able to distinguish between the inn
ported and the homemade product
His own product cost him less. and
be was, therefore. able to undersell
his competitors.
An inspector disguised himself and,
knowing something Of the business
got employment from the dealer. He
personally Grated some of the wine
that he himself had helped to manu-
factur6 and personally saw TO its
shipment into Michigan. He had
marked the bottles When it was on
it's way he resigned lhis job and start
ed in pursuit He recovered the ship
ment from the man to whom It waf
assigned and his case was complete.
Had Handmade Eggs.
IN a certain Central West city there
was a large dealer who maintained q
high-class establishment that handled
eggs prepared out of the shell fol
food purposes. In another nearb.
city was a man who purported to dea
only in eggs as tanning material HI
bought large quantities of question
able eggs at reduced prices and sup
posedly converted them into this tan
ming material. The dealer first name.
never bought anything but high-clas
eggs. There seemed no reason, there
fore, why his product should not b.
all that was expected of it. The in
spectors were able to examine tn
eggs he received and knew them L
be good. They were able also to get ac
cess to the material he sold and knew
some of that to be had. For a lonl
time they were puzzled. Finally the.
discovered that the second man knew
supposedly used bad eggs for tanninl
purposes. was selling less of this ma
terial than would have been pro
vided by the quantity of eggs that h
was buying. They found also tha
the prices he was paying for the ques
tionable eggs were higher than woul
have been warranted by the marke
price of the tanning material
The inspectors now suspected tina
the two dealers were working in col
lusion. They we're permitted to in
spect certain eggs that were con
signd to the dealer IN tanning ma
terial Whenever they went to in
spect a consignment Of these egg
they did so with much advance preI
aration. They carried in their pocb
cts substitute eggs which they place
in the squares of certain eggs tina
were to find their way into the deal
er's establishment. These substitute
eggs had previously been treated wit
lithium iodide, valuable because {
the colorss it shows in the spectre
scope. If the egg material that ha
gone into the first establishment wer
found coming but of the second th
case would be established. Th
search was for lithium iodide. The
found it in the eggs that were bein
used as food, proving that they wer
cOminp from the fOul DrOduca this