The Colorado statesman., 1920-12-04

"Why should i buy oranges and
press out the juice for the baby when
I can buy 1t already mndef' said Mrs.
Housekeeper, holding up a bottle con-
taining n yellow beverage with fan
ciful name and the picture Of dell
cIous, yellow orange on the label.
"This saves lots of work and is cheap
err. Besides. the baby likes 1t real
we'll"
Put this is not orange juice; 1t Is
only an imitation" said the food spe-
cialist, carefully examining the fancy
label. "You said that your physician
told you to give the baby orange juice.
No physician would ever prescribe this
concoction Forget the picture OF an
orange and read the fine print on the
label. In that the manufacturer pre-
tends to comply with the provisions
of the food and drugs act by partly
correcting some of the misleading fea-
lures of the label. You notice that
he does not call 1t orange juice any
where, hut creates the impression that
It Is by the picture of an orange, ana
the use of fanciful name which suS-
gests orange fruit. The color of the
orange is obtained by the use OF an
Artificial dye. The only part of the
orange in this stuff Is perhaps MI
mute quantity of oil pressed from
orange skin, or extracts from the dried
peel, which carries the aroma and
flavor of orange"
Not Getting Orange Juice.
''You mean to say my baby has not
been getting any orange juice? The
doctor said he needed 1t more than
anything. No wonder he stayed sick"
"The only orange your baby gets
from this bottle is the SMELL" replied
the food specialist. "Your physician
prescribed orange juice for the baby
because it contains certain organic
aoids which have medicinal value and
also contains vitamines which are es-
sentai to growth. Your physician
prescribed orange juice because the
vitamines are lacking in sufficient
quantity in pasteurized milk. But
this concoction Is essentially sweet
ened, artlficially carbonated water fla
vored with little oil from the peel
of, the orange and colored to initiate
orange juice. 1t contains none of the
medicinal qualities or vitamlnes of
orange juice"
This incident, which might occur In
any city of the United States, EN-
plrasizes the warning recently issued
by the officials of the bureau of chem
isfry, United States Department of
Agriculture, to read carefully all Ia
bells on food and drug packages.
National prohibition has resulted In
the market being flooded with soft
drinks, some of which are limitations
of various fruit juices and sold under
fahciful names in order to evade, If
possible, the necessity of stating on
the label what the product really Is.
Because of the deceptive nature of
the label on some of these products,
the officials in charge of the enforce
ment of the federal food and drugs
act have instituted proceedings to re
quire correct labelling. In the mean
tine. pending judicial decisions as to
what is correct labelling of these prod
ucts under the law, some manufac-
turers are continuing to put their de-
ceptively '"beled products on the mar
kct.
Read Labels Carefully.
While the labels referred to are
grossly misleading on casual reading
such as is given by the average house
wife, they usually do contain state
ments In n more or less inconspicuous
way which will reveal to the careful,
critical reader the fact that the prod
uct is not what 1t purports to be.
These lnconspicuous statements are
usually placed on the labels for the
purpose of evading the penalties for
mlsbrandng. The manufacturer hopes
TO mislead the purchasers by sugges-
tive statements and pictures played up
prominently on the label so as to at
tract instant attention, and escape the
charge of misbranding by correcting
the misleading features with inconspic-
nous statements In another part OF
the label which the average purchaser
does not read.
The officials have ruled that the
terms "ade." squash" punch"
scrush," and "smash," when used In
conjunction with the name of fruit
can be applied correctly only to bev-
erages which contsin the. edible Dor