Mexico weekly ledger., 1914-10-01

butary to Chicago.
Coming at a time such as this,
with threats of invasion, siege, Of fam
inc and distress, / think | can claim
to have helped in unearthing a dis
covery which will interest greatly the
frozen meat trade. We now have unde-
niable proof that meat can be kept in
a frozen state for no less than is
years and can then be honestly and
openly guaranteed as good for hum
an consumption. That is putting the
findings in as bald a phraseology as
possible.
In July a ~hindqusrter of frozen beef
vas exhibited at SmithfieId market,
London, that had been shipped by
John Coke & Co. from their Redbank
freezing works, Brisbane, Australia,
in February, 1896. and sold by W.
Weddell q Co, London, TO Wills &
Co, military contractors, Malta, who
retained il in cold storage there for
experimental purposes until the Gov
eminent Of Britain took over their
warehouse some months ago, when
the hind quarter was sent on to Lon
don. The meat, although somewhat
faded in outward appearance, was on
inspection in Smithfield, found to be
still sweet and sound and "had lost
but little if any Of its nutriment."
The system of refrigeration en-
ployed during the period was the
brine circulation process, and the cold
store was insulated with flake char
coal.
The beef came to London from T.
G. Rawlings, food inspector to the
British navy at Malta, who wished his
friend DR.. 7. Dunlop Young, the vet
Urinary Inspector to the Corporation
Of London, to go into the scientific
and the practical side of "long dis
lance" and long-period refrigeration.
The historic hindquarter has been
kept at the central markets cold
stores in Smithfield and | have just
received the official findings of a sci
entific test undertaken by DR.. S. Ri
deal, the food inspector to the London
Meat Importers Association. He has
put on record the following state
ments:
From my detailed examinations of
the hind quarter of Queensland beef,
which was killed in 1896 and which
has now been in cold store for is
years, | am of opinion that the beef
has undergone remarkably little
change during that period. The anal
ysis of the beef-tea extracts obtained
from this meat are very similar to
those obtained from fresh English
beef, and from Queensland meat kill
ed in 1897 and examined by me at
that time after having been hard-froz
en- for about four months. This is an
indication that the dietic value Of the
meat had not been impaired by time.
The fibres under a microscopic exam
ination Of samples taken from the but
took and rump appeared normal, with
a few distorted filaments, such as oc-
cur in ordinary fresh meat. State
ments to the effect that meat under
cold storage for a period longer than
a year brings about changes which
render it unfit for consumption have
been disproved by this investigation.
1.-THE prolonged effect of cold stor-
age has increased the ~extractive fig
ures(that is, the readiness with which
beef gives up its essence in beef teal,
but there is no indication of putrefac
ton taking place at this low tempera-
ture and the meat was consumed, ev-
en- after Is years, without any signs
Of dietetic disturbance"
Statements as these, grave and
w%eighty, must prove to Americans in
terested in the meat trade the i'm
mense possibilities of developing an
industry such as this. One point | no
ticed had not been touched upon, and
that was the temperature in which
this piece of beef had been kept. We'd
dell & Co. tell me that TO insure the
results produced by this investigation
the piece of beef had been kept at
practically the same temperature dur
ing the whole period Of 10 years. The
average q Of frozen meat sold in
London is two or three months and
the oldest frozen meat hitherto known
to the trade was said to be "a months;
yet this hind quarter Of beef, as soon
as IL was cut through, was found TO be
perfectly sound and sweet. As in the
case of other frozen beef, it had lost
its outward bloom, but one reason why
Il had maintained It's fnlI nntrifiuo