Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1913-11-27
FOOD ADUlTERATIONS
and PATENT MEDICINES

and PATENT MEDICINES
State Chemist E. F. Ladd Outlines What Ten
Years of North Dakota's Pure Food Law Has
Accomplished and Explains Plans for Future
B%etterment of Conditions tor the People
of the FIiCkertali State
DR.. Ladd in his address before the Federated
Womens Clubs of North Dakota said: Ten
years ago in this state there was scarcely a
butchers shop that did not use boric acid and
%sulttes, two of the most harmful of chemical
preservatives. also coal tar dye and various
other preparations, to make their meats look
fresh and preserve them from decay. Sanitary
conditions in the handling of the meat were al
most unknown. Hamburger steaks and saus-
ages, not only by the local butcher, but by the
larger packing houses were embalmed with pre-
servatives. Even in the canned meats preser-
vatives were used, so that if it had not been
we'll done or the steralizing had not been
properly carried out, the meat would keep and
have the appearance of soundness when it
reached our Tables.
Our canned corn too often was, of low grade,
bleached with ~sulftes, sweetened with saccha-
rim Or coal tarsugar to make it in a measure
palatable. Tomatoes in the can were largely
water, often green, material colored red With
coal tar dye. and at times containing preserva
tives. Canned peas contained preservatives
like boric acid, benzoate of soda and were
greened with copper salts. The canned berries,
especially the cheaper grades. that go into the
home of the working man, were of inferior
quality, green or decayed, the whole mass color
ed with coal tar dye to give the appearance of
maturity, sweetened with saccharine instead of
sugar, and at times oven containing added pre-
servatives to prevent the necessity of steraliza-
ton, Factory conditions were bad. There were
very few places where the conditions were such
as would be tolerated in the home of any lutel-
ligent person, Maple sugar and svrups were
adulterated with cane sugar and glucose and at
times sweetened With saccharin. Scarcely a
jelly was to be found fit to be eaten. Its basis
was too often skins and refuse of apples, cores,
rotten portions, all improperly kept. dessicated
sacked and shipped to the place where it was
manufactured into jelly. There the mass was
steamed and worked until when mixed with
glucose and other fruit juices it would be COLI
verted into a jelly and used in the homes of our
working people. Even that entering the homes
q; the most discriminating families was often
Ia tgely adulterated and unfit as an article Of
f,"d. Stock labels were added without regard
t. The character of the product and according to
IT," demands made for a particular kind of jelly
Jam was often the refuse of the jelly making re-
inforced with a little fruit, glucose, saccharin,
and sugar, colored with coal tar dye, and at
times grass seed added to simulate the seed of
the fruit from which the jam was supposed to
be made. Ground spices seldom contained more
than fifty per cent of the real spice named upon
the label ground cereals, cocoanut shells and
olive stones, together with coal tar dyes, made
the article presentable to the eye and found
ready sale under fancy labels and often at
fancy prices.
Ten years ago, not one grocery store in ten in
North Dakota carried aline of Vanilla extracts
which would be used at the present time by any
part of the public, yet such was the condition
ten years ago. No longer are these gross adul-
terations practiced no longer are our food pro-
ducts sophisticated in this way. The price is
eternal vigilence upon the part of those whose
duty it is to see that the laws of the state are
enforced and respected. Let us relax our efforts
or let the public lose interest for six months
and then note the conditions in this sta,e or
any other with regard to our food supply. There
is not one week that passes but what someone
tries to put upon the market an article that is
misbranded,m isrepresented or unfit for use,
Beverages and soft drinks are even worse than
the foods in the period mentioned, Today new
problems confront us of equal importance to
those we have had to deal with in the past. AS
the population has BECOME more dense our
streams and water supplies have become more
contaminated, and as We have come to depend
more and more upon the food products as pur.
chased in the stores and shops we have come to
fl nd that sanitary conditions require our close
and immediate attention.
Ten years more and we shall look back and
wonder how we have tolerated conditions which
ar e all to prevalent today in the handling and
dispensing of our food products, nthe char
acter of our water supplies; in the control OF
our milk supply in the factory and about the
houee, where unsanitary conditions may exist
permitting of the Judgement of disease germs
Go into the back alley of the business portion
of nearly any town; go into the back rooms anc
Easements of the stores and note how little care
is given to the protection which the public il
entitled to-. Look at some of our bake shop!
and their location the condition of our slaugh.
ter houses and the lack of care in disposing o
the refuse and manure from stables. Note how
the refuse, waste products and garbage are al
lowed to accumulate and be the breedin.
ground for flies and other vermin that are anon,
the greatest distributors of disease that we nov
have. Little attention is paid to the %sanitar,
condition of the rlace where milk is produced o
handled and little do we know with regard t.
the character of the milk, whether or not tn
same is contaminated with typhoid fever germ
or those producing summer complaint, dysen
try, etc. Yet the milk is received in this ra,
condition into the home and used by all and
has been repeatedly shown that typhoid fever
scarlet fever, tonsilitis, tuberculosis and sun
complaint are easily distributed through tn
medium of the milk furnished to a communit!
In the smaller towns little do we know wit
regard to the character of the water supply g
to whether or not the water is pure as usu,
in the shops and stores or at the soda fountain
and in the preparation of soft drinks. All thes
things must have proper supervision for IL
protection of the public.
Go with me for a few moments into the BAG
alleys of some places that might we'll be name
and there behold the swarm of flies breediI
and gathering about a mass of decomposing IN
tariRl. where perhnDs the excrnta of tyDhO