El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-11-15
Rigid Tests By Gamers
Prevention OF Leaks and "svTeIIss
Requires Constant Care and
WatchfuIneSs.
u El--...-.l.I..
by Freceric ]. Haskin-

w Canned g good. are not not dan
gerOus. Occasionally. when you
are about to partake Of food that YOU
know has been preserved IN a tin can,
if you are a bit squemish wonder
vaguely if it is good. and hope de-
vOutly that il will not make you i'll,
you experience in a mild and fleeting
form the great fear that ever brOods
over the canning industry You may
be afraid that this particular bit Of
food is unwholesOme, but at the worst
it will only disagree with you"
The Gamer has much more than that
to think about spoiled package
of goods Injuries him in more ways
than one. If the defect is discovered
before the package leaves the fac
tory, it is a simple money loss II
il is discovered in the grocery store
II is 4 money loss and an injury to
trade reputation If il goes on and
is not discovered until IL reaches the
family kitchen, then 1t is a compound
injury involving money loss, injured
trade reputation and injured general
reputation, the last the worst of all
Few Founded on Fact.
Stories OF canned food poisoning are
not one in a hundred founded on fact.
For instance, II several persons who
have attended a wedding reception
should print, honestly enough. that the
physicians suspected the illness ORR
ginated in canned shrimp, then for
several weeks there will be a falling
goods in that community.
To cite a concrete case: A short
time ago, following a wedding recep-
ton in a suburb OF Philadelphia. p
Of the forty-one persons present at
the reception were taken i'll A story
was circulated. although perhaps IL
did not reach the newspapers, that the
illness was caused by eating canned
goods.
But in few days It developed that
the p persons were suffering from
typhoid fever and experts from the
federal Public Health Service were
detailed to investigate the outbreak.
A careful investigation was made OF
all the things eaten and drunk by the
guests at the reception. Among the
various things served were Watercress
sandwiches. Only % guests had
eaten these, and OF these % had con-
tracted typhoid fever and the other
guest was Immune because he had
the disease only few years before.
And yet all this was at first charged
to canned shrimps
The National Gamers association
makes it a point religOusly to investi-
gate every story of ptomaine 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 improperly washed, than
in almost any other kind of food Yet
the public generally has no instinc-
tive fear of such products.
The weight of scientific opinion Is
on the side of those packers who
protest that the use Of small quanti-
ties Of preservatives. such as the
familiar One-tenth Of one per cent OF
benzOate Of soda, is not physiolOgically
harmful: that is. that this small guam
tity of the chemical OF itself will not
harm the person who eats of the pro-
duct containing 1t.
On the other hand the preponderance
OF expert opinion indicates that such
personalities should be used, il at ALL
only under the most stringent reg
ulatOry provisions since by their use
food not otherwise fit for human con-
sumption may be preserved with every
whOlesOmeness.
Leaving aside this controversy and
also Leaving out of the equation those
irresponsible packers who from time