Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-11-15
The Canning Industry
iIi.-lts Modern Methods.
BY Frederic ]. Haskin.

Occasionally, when you are about t.
partake of food that you know has beer
preserved in tin can. If you are BIZ
squeamish, wonder vaguely If 1t is good
and hope devoutly that ii will not make
YOU i'll, you experience in a mild and
fseeting form the great fear that ever
broods over the canning industry. Yor
may be afraid that this particular bit OF
food is unwholesome. but at the worst II
Will only disagree with you"
The Gamer has much more than that to
think about A spoiled package of goods
Injuries him In more ways than one. II
the defect is discovered before the pack
age leaves the factory. ii is a simple
money loss. If it is discovered in the
grocery store 1t Is money loss and an
injury to trade reputation. If it goes on
and is not discovered until it reaches
the family kitchen, then il is COM
pound injury involving money loss, in
Jured trade reputation and injured gen
eral reputation, the last the worst of all.
As II this We're not enough. the can
ners must ever fear the circulation OF
stories of canned food poisoning, not one
IN hundred of which is founded on
fact. but which, unfortunately. the wild
er and more Improbable they may be.
II several persons who have attended a
wedding reception should become i'll. and
euspapers should print. honestly enough,
that the physicians suspected the illness
originated in canned shrimp, then for
several weeks there will be a falling off
IN the consumption of canned goods in
that community.
To cite concrete case: A short time
ago. following wedding reception in a
suburb of Philadelphia. twenty-five of
m fnrtyy
ception we're taken i'll. A story was cir
culated. although perhaps il did not reach
the newspapers, that the illness was
caused by eating canned goods.
But in a few days it developed that the
twenty-five persons were suffering from
typ h old fever
Got Typhoid Fever and experts
From Water Cress. from : n RED =
health service were detailed to investigate
the outbreak. A careful investigation
was made. of all of the things eaten and
drunk by the guests at the reception
Among the various things served were
watercress sandwiches. Only twenty
three guests had eaten these. and of
these twenty-three twenty-five had con-
tracted typhoid fever. and the other guest
was immune. because he had had the dis
ease only a few years before. And yet
all this was at first charged to canned
shrmps.
The National Gamers Association
makes il a point religiously TO investi-
gate every story OF ptoInaine poisoning
caused by eating canned goods. and. as
has been said, in nine cases out of ten
the tales turn out to be baseless. There
is much more danger in eating green
vegetables uncooked, or that have been
other kind of food. Yet the public gen
orally has no instructive fear of such
products.
All this merely to show that the can
ners have the greatest possible interest
in putting out goods that are we'll pre-
served. At this point ii is impossible to
ignore the great controversy raging in the
preserved food world concerning the use
of chemical personalities. Undoubtedly.
the weight of scientific opinion is on the
side of those packers who protest that
the use of small quantities of preserva
tives. such the familiar one-tenth of
! per cent of benZoate of soda. is not
physiologfcally harmful that is, that this
small quantity. of the chemical of itself
eili not harm the person who eats Of the
product containing il.
On the other hand, the preponderance
Of expert opinion indicates that such pre-
SeFFdtiNeS ShOuld De USED, III at all. only
under the most stringent regulatory pro-
visions. since by their use food not other
wise lit for human consumption may be
preserved with every external appearance
of freshness and wholesomeness.
!
Leaving aside this controversy, and also
Ieaving out of the equation those ir-
responsible pack
Modern Methods ers. who from
time to time set