Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-08-06
Unprotected Food.

We wish to call attention to a bulle-
tin Just issued from the Maine Agrieul-
tural Experiment Station at 0rono. It
treats upon a subject which is near to
our hearts. We have frequently dealt
with the manner in which human food
is handled, and exposed to filth, by
those who make it their business. We
have noted that not only are fruits,
berries. candies and the like exposed
to aies and the germs waited in every
puff Of dust, but that bread and other
pastry are handled in many places
much as If they were stove wood or
bags of potatoes. with hands grimy
from the handling OF meat, vegetables
anG all the natural filth of a grocery
store or market.
1t is not far to go to find food dis
PLAYED on the top of show cases and
counters where men, women and chill
dren of all classes and all diseases,
lean over it, handle it with nasty
hands, sneeze and cough over 1t, and
generally add to the accumulation of
germs that soft foods invite.
The Bulletin from Orono reads in
part
During the summer months the at
tention of the executive of the Maine
pure food law is being largely devoted
to the proper protection of foods OF
various kinds from dust and flies, and
the work of the food inspectors is for
the present largely along this line. This
movement is receiving the hearty sup
port of the public and OF large pro-
portion of the dealers. Up-to-date
dealers recognize that such protection
adds to the attractiveness Of the mar
ket and the store.
This activity is based upon a part of
Section IL of Chapter 119 of the Public
Laws of 1911 wherein it says. that for
the purpose of this act an article of
food shall be deemed to be adulterated
IF in the manufacture, sale, distribu
ton or transportation ii is not at all
times securely protected from filth,
flies, dust or other contamination. or
other unclean, unhealthful or unsani-
tary conditions" The justification for
this clause is found in part on the fol-
lowing indisputable facts:
The fly breeds only in filth. The egg
is always deposited in filth of some
kind. 1t is Matched as a maggot and
develops in few days and energies as
| a full grown fly that feeds indiserimi-
nately upon every variety of tilth and
refuse, as Well as upon foods intended
/ for human consumption, cooked and
uncooked The flies that are driven
from the box of strawberries that you
purchase in the market, from the con-
feetionery which you buy and put di-
reetly into the mouth, or which falls
into your glass of milk in the restau-
rant may have come directly from the
| fresh horse manure in the street. the
dirty closets in the back yard. or the
| sputum of some consumptive upon the
| sidewalk
/ Aside from the disagreeable idea oc-
| oasioned by The uncleanliness of such
a situation there is always a possibility
OF the contamination of foods with the
germs of such scourges as tubereulo-
sis, typhoid fever and other dangerous
hearssy or guess work. They are pos
tive facts.
The dust which is blown about the
city streets is also contaminated with
these dangerous germs of disease In
diViduals in the early stages of tuber-
culosis are daily walking the streets
The dried sputum containing the germs
As unavoidably mixed with the dust
Every breeze which at the time MAY
| seem refreshing may be laden with the
deadly germs which will settle upon al
food products exposed unprotected
either upon the sidewalk or inside tho
: open store and market. The uncovered
displays Of pastry, fruit. confectioner,
and other foods which to the unthinki
ing mind seem SO attractive may quit,