The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-12-18
SOME FACTS ABOUT STATE PURE
FOOD DEPARTMENT
Food Inspection

fOOu Inspection
All food inspection laboratories
were established originally and pri-
marily for the purpose Of investigating
the character of food supplied for pub
lie consumption, and, no matter how
much the field of operation of these
institutions may have been extended
by various laws passed since their
foundation, the supervision Of the pre-
paration, sale and distribution of food
and drink is still by far the most i'm
portant function the several state and
national food and drug departments
have to perform. In our state we are
endeavoring to improve conditions in
all three branches of the food industry
as indicated above.
Our inspectors are inspecting the
slaughter houses and meat markets
where meats are prepared; bakeries
and confectionaries where large
amounts of baked foods are prepared,
and are bringing about marked i'm
provement in the sanitary conditions
at such places. Buildings are being
renovated or rebuilt, and we believe
that these improvements will be so evil
dent in a few months that it will not
be necessary for us to call your atten-
ton to the work we are trying to do
along these lines.
The department is improving the
conditions under which food is sold
by inspecting all stores, with special
stress laid upon sanitary conditions.
Grocers are required to keep their
places of business clean, not only in
the aisles where the customers walk,
but behind counters, inside of refriger-
ators, down in the cellars, out in the
back yards, and, in fact, the whole
place must be maintained in the best
manner possible to insure the cleanli-
ness of the goods sold.
We are trying to compel more care
in the handling of foods on the way
to the consumers houses. This ap-
plies more especially to wagons in
which bread and other bakery pro-
ducts are delivered. These are requir-
ed to be kept clean and the drivers
must wear clean gloves when handling
their goods.
In the laboratory we have four
chemists, who are busy all the time
examining samples of foods and drugs
to determine whether they conform to
the requirements of law. The results
of these examinations are published
every two months in the bulletin of the
department.
Drug Inspection
You are certainly interested in this
phase of the departments work, for if
the druggist has not drugs of the
proper strength and purity, serious
results may follow. For the past two
years we have been examining large
numbers of samples of drugs, and we
are glad to report that the quality is
steadily improving. The druggists of
the state are quite thoroughly aroused
to the importance of correct products.
They are, almost without exception,
using much more care than formerly
in the preparation and preservation of
their products.
Linseed Oil
South Dakota has been somewhat
ahead of some neighboring states in
the fight against adulterated linseed
oil, and where one of these states is
now finding hundreds of samples OF
adulterated oil, we are finding almost
none. This is an important article,
and the Food and Drug Department is
insuring pure linseed oil and paints to
the people of South Dakota.
Hotel Inspection
II you are a traveller in South Da.
kota, or for any other reason find II
necessary to p~atronize the hotels. res