Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-05-08

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prosecutions and seizures terminated
in the Federal courts, have been pub
llished in the form of Notices of Judg-
ment since the enactment of the Fed
eral Food and Drug Act, according to
a recent statement of the officials
of the Bureau Of Chemistry, United
States Department of Agriculture. in
charge of the enforcement Of that law.
This number represents only instances
of fragrant misbranding or adulte-
ration which, in the opinion of the Of
ficals, it was necessary to prosecute
the party responsible or seize the
goods in order to check the practice.
Thousands of other forms of minor
misbranding, say the officials, have
been corrected by serving notices. on
the parties responsible without re-
coures to formal legal action. The
voluntarily have changed trade prac-
tees of long standing.
The violation Of the act on which
the court actions were based cover
nearly every food product from ali
mentary paste to zwieback, including
soft sardines from Maine. as well as
spoiled salmon from Washington;
frozen oranges from California, as
we'll as sweated grapefruit from
Porto Rico. Prosecutions on patent
medicines from so-called sure cures"
for tuberculosis and influenza to
candy carthartics and castor oil. In
the beverage line, cider as well as
champaign, grape juice as well as
gin, water as well as wine, have been
called to the bar-of the Federal
course to formal legal action. They
should not be poured into the sewer
and thus diverted from the alimen-
tary canal.
Finding Foods Adulterated.
Contamination is one form of adul-
iteration which covers a large number
of violations, and is due principally
to carelessness or lack of knowledge
of proper methods for preparing,
handling, shipping, and storing per-
ishable foods, as is the case with milk
having high bacterial count; spoil
ed fish, rotten eggs, swelled canned
goods, decomposed tomato pulp, and
putrid meat.
The food specialists have done ex-
tensive experimental work in devel-
oping methods for preparing and
handling perishable foods, and in
aiding manufacturers, shippers and
dealers to apply those methods in a
practical way. The marked improve
ment in the methods of handling
perishable, foods during recent years
has been due, in the opinion of the
food officials as much to the expert
mental and educational work as to
the regulatory action under the Food
and Drug Act.
Substituting cheaper article of
food in whole or in part for more
expensive one is a favorite form of
|adulteration which in some instances
relieves the pocketbook without in
jury, and leaves the purchaser none
the wiser. In many instances of this
form of adulteration, however, the
substantial ingredient has less food
value or nutritive material than the
genuine article. Such forms of sub
stitution include the addition of
ground pepper shells to pepper;
chicory to coffee; dilute acetic acid
to cider vinegar: distilled vinegar to
cider or sugar vinegar; glue to gela-
flavor. The milk man is not the on
ly visitor to the pump or hydrant.
Added water or excessive moisture
has been found in oysters, fruit juices,
canned goods, vinegar, and grains, and
even in dried apples as well as in 9TH
err food products.
The cases in which it was charged
that ingredients harmful to health had
been deliberately added to foods are
few in number. The Federal Food
and Drug Act specifically prohibits
the addition of such ingredients to
food products. The use of harmful
preservatives is unnecessary and few
manufacturers care to risk prosecu-
ton or injury to the reputation OF
their product by adding substances
held to be harmful to health. Harm
full ingredients in food are usually
acquired by the development of HARM
full bacteria from Contamination, or
harmful ingredients accidentally ac-
Quired during the process of manu-
facture, as for instance, zinc, copper,
and arsenic from utensils or materi-
ais used in the manufacture of gela-
Food Falsely Labeled.
The form of misbranding range
from a deliberate false statement as
to the nature of the product, as. for
instance, labelling a low-grade, cheap
coffee with the name of higher
and more expensive gade, such as Mo-
cha or Java, to subtle designs and de-
vices, as the placing on can of cot
eonseed oil labeled merely Salad
Oil'' the picture of an olive tree and
a map of Italy in order to convey the
impression that the product is Olive
oil from Italy.
Among other forms of misbrand-
ing of foods may be mentioned the
labelling of distilled vinegar as apple
cider vinegar; the labelling of maca-
roni as being of foreign manufacture
when it was made in the United
States: the labelling of apples as New
York State apples when they were
grown in other States: the labelling
of synthetic methyl salicylated as oil
of birsh, the misbranding of lake her.
RING as white fish. the labelling of