Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-05-08
MoRNING Wy gg
MISBRANDINC OF FOODS GREATLY +.
REDUCED BY GOVERNMENT LAWS
Manufacture of Adulturated Products, Sale Of Spoiled
Foodstuffs ,Mislabeled Cured and "Doped Med
icines Prevented by Federal Laws


absence of any statment regarding the
quantity Of the contents, was the bas-
is of charge for misbranding in sew
eral of the food cases.
Misbranding in it's various forms
is aimed usually to convey the i'm
preston that the article is of high
actually is.
err grade or more expensive than it
AS dishonest clothing merchant
will sometimes brand as all wool
cloth which is mixture of wool and
cotton, so the dishonest food manu-
facturer or merchant at times tries
to pass off his cheaper foods under
the name of higher priced ones. Mis-
branded foods which are not also
adulterated may be wholesome and
nutritious, but the purchasers are
misled as to the quality or quantity
and are induced in many instances to
pay higher price than the articles
are worth. AS result of the opera
lions of the Food and Drugs Act there
is today much less misbranding in
foods than in any other general class
of merchandise sold to the public.
Patent and Proprietary Medicines.
The charge in the majority of the
more than six hundred patent and
proprietary medicine cases included
in the Notices of Judgment was based
on false and fraudulent statements on
the labels as to the therapeutic or
curative powers of the preparations.
Worthless preparations carried claims
on the labels of curative powers for
such dangerous diseases as tubercu-
losis, diptheria, scarlet fever, typhoid
fever and influenza, as we'll as for
host of less fatal maladies.
Some Stock Feeds Adulterated.
Many cases were based on the adul-
teration or misbranding of stock feed.
The adulteration charge usually con-
sisted in the substituting of sub
stance with little feeding value for
one of higher feeding value, as, for
place of cottonseed meal; rice hulls
in place of rice bran, and mill elevat-
or screenings in place of mill feeds.
The favorite form of misbranding as
shown by the Notices of Judgement
was to claim of crude fibre as higher
percentage of protein and fat, and a
lower percentage of crude fibre than
than feeds actually contained.
Charges of short weight were also
made in number of stock-feed cases.
Improvement in Trade Practices.
Most of the grosser forms of adul-
iteration and misbranding on which
the earlier cases were based have been
eliminated as general trade practices
say the officials. Occasional sporad-
ic instances on the part of widely
scattered dealers to adulterate and
,misbrand in the old way are still de-
tected, but such practices are no long
err general. New and more subtle
forms of adulteration, however, are
appearing. While the chief part of
the great volume of food products
that is shipped into interstate COM
MERGE is free from adulteration and
misbranding, vignence on the part of
inspectors is necessary to checkmate
the few who continue adulterate.
The industries frequently volunteer
to eliminate practices which the de-
part holds to be contrary to the =re-
quirements of the Food and Drugs
Act, and as result many reforms of
about without resources to legal ac-
ton. Among the many trade prac-
tees that have been checked or al
most entirely eliminated either by le-
gal action. volunteer cooperation on
the part of the industries, or by edu-
cational campaigns, may be mention
ed few instances. as the coloring
of canned peas with copper: the use
of dangerous preseratives; the sweat
ing of immature oranges and grape
fruit to give them the appearance of
ripe fruit; the adulteration of grain
with water to give added weight
taking oysters from water polluted
with sewage: canning decomposed
fish; the manufacture of foods from
refuse products and gelatinenfoigwtt
refuse products, especially tomato
products: and making baking powder
and gelatine in such way that the
finised product contains lead or ar