The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1914-07-23
KEEPING FOOD IN SUMNER.
Valuable Suggestions for Housewives Dur
ing the Hot Months

Valuable Suggestions for Housewives Dur
ing the Hot Months.
The Department of Agriculture issues
the following practical suggestions in re-
gard to keeping food and drink in hot
weather, with view to helping the pub
lie to avoid sickness from eating spoiled
articles of diet:
"While people should be careful about
the condition of the food they eat at all
seasons of the year, they should be par
ticularly watchful during the summer
months. In hot weather, bacteria null
tiply far more rapidly than in cold wealth
err ard produce chemical changes in some
foods which greatly lessen their nutritlve
value and often make them unfit for hu-
man consumption. Unfortunately, there
is no quick, absolute, simple, practical
way of determining the presence of
hurtful bacilli in foods, or of obtaining
positive evidence of the existence of
ptomanes. The average family does not
have the delicate apparatus needed for
these tests, nor the skill to detect these
micro-orga
The housewife will find eyes and nose
the safest practical detectives of bad
food in hot weather. If any article has
abnormal, it should be avoided. People
eating In doubtful restaurants should be
particularly careful about meats or fish
cooked with highly spiced or aromatic
sauce which might disguise bad taste or
warning odor. Only sweet smelling, clean
food should be eaten. Spotted, green,
Shiny or frothy raw meat, or meat which
is soft in spots should be regarded with
suspicion. Taste of course is a supple
mentary test, but one to be used after
eyes, nose and fingers. A mother before
she allows her child to eat anything
should examine it carefully in good
light, smell it, and finally taste it.
"Milk particularly deteriorates rapidly
under summer heat, especially ii 1t al
ready contains bacteria. Housewives,
therefore, should see to it that their
milk after being left by the milkman
does not stand for any length of time on
hot porch or stoop before it is put in
the ice-box. Milk bottles should be kept
closed, both in the'ic box and out of it.
If there is any doubt at all as to the ex-
cellence of the local milk supply, pasteur-
ize all milk.
.'All foods should be kept covered or
wrapped, and always out of the reach OF
flies, which are deadly carriers of ty-
phoid. Ali vessels, pitchers. etc, In
which food is to be stored, should first be
scalded. Food should be handled as little
as possible. The ice box, especially its
drain pipe, should be cleaned thoroughly
and frequently with boiling water and
washing soda, and given an occasional
airing. A persistent battle should be
waged against flies in all parts of the
home.
"Uncooked foods as a general PROPOSE
ton should be avoided. Children should
not be allowed to eat the skins of fruits,
especially fruits which have been ex-
posed to flies or street dirt on unscreened
stands or push-carts.
''Those who go away for vacation
should not get the idea that everything
in summer resort or strange city is
necessarily pure and wholesome. The
danger of typhoid fever in country re-
sorts is very great. Many of the cases
of typhoid fever recorded in the fall in
cities where the water is pure, had their
origin in water or contaminated sub
stances drunk or eaten at some summer
resort. Insist on boiled water. If you
absolutely cannot get boiled water, make
very sure about reputation of springs,
well or tap water. Refuse absolutely to
take any water that comes from source
near an clubhouse or stable, or In neigh
borhood where fever is at all prevalent.
"Boiled water can be made just SO
palatable as unboiled water. The fial
taste which boiled water has soon after
it is boiled is due to the fact that boiling
drives out of it the air which it held in
solution. If water after boiling is put
in scalded shallow open pans and allowed
to stand for "a hours where flies or dirt
cannot get at it, 1t will regain its air and
have its usual taste restored by the Sec
ond day.
FINALLY it is particularly important IN
summer that people should not be misled
into believing that the label Guaranteed
under the Food and Drugs Act on cans
and packages means that the govern
ment has tested these foods and pro-
nounced them pure and desirable. The
government does not make the guaran-
tee. The guarantee is made wholly by
the manufacturer, and means no more
than when your own corner grocer guar
antee that the sugar he weighs out for
you is all right. Examine goods labeled
guaranteed just as carefully as any
other kind