Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-09-14
FOOD POISONING CASES
BY Frederic J. IIaskin

Washington, Sept. 1%--IIcre II
type OF newspaper headline long
familiar 70 the American pubic
Seven Of Family III After Eating
Canned Soup" The average reader
shakes his head over the item ana
wonders II the restaurant where he
ate his lunch served him canned OF
fresh vegetables in that salad. He
decides that he viii be careful about
eating canned stuff at home.
For the average person that is the
end of the affair. He forgets about
the sick family, but tho news item
has deposited IN his mind little
more of the sediment that makes up
for him the deep-seated conviction
that canned foods. though cheap. are
hazardous and are to be partaken OF
! only at ones peril,
The publication Of such an Item.
| however--and dozens OF such items
are published every year in the Ameri-
can newspapers--is only the begin
ming Of an episode for an organization
maintained in Washington by the
packers of commercially canned foods.
This organization. the National Can
ners' Assc scciation, occupied for the
most part with problems In science,
now constitutes an investigation bu-
reau. It's agents get quickly on the
job-wlthin "a hours, IL possible. IL
the case is serious one, difficult Of
solution, II will call In the services
OF Some specialist from ono OF the
| tau ton
will probably end In a laboratory
| somewhere.
| But by whatever means the investi-
cation is conducted. the chances are
that the canned foods blamed will be
shown to be innocent and the Illness
laid to some other cause. AS 70 the
sick family cited above, the chemists
test tube demonstrated that the i'll
ness was due TO some unwholesome
meat served at the meal. The canned
soup was perfectly wholesome.
The fact Is that commercially can
ned food today is the victim OF a leg
end. Whether there was ever ans
basis in fact for the belief that such
food is dangerous. there certainly Is
little basis for IL now. The unmeritec
evii reputation Of timed food is KEEP
alive today principally by doctors
either through ignorance or careless
ness. A family suddenly becomes i'll
obviously the victims Of poison. Tit
, family doctor inquiries immediatel.
what the members have eaten. II b,
, any chance canned food of any sor
has been on the menu, IL is enough
: The doctor promptly names the cul
prit, and the newspapers have anothe
o sensational item. The doctor may no
p know that science has now shown
that the presumption Of guilt lies jus
? as heavily. If not more heavily, upoi
the fresh food eaten by his patients
q Indeed, it Is probably a safe state
r ment that fresh foods today are NOR
Q likely to be unwholesorne than canne
foods. The laboratory Of the Harvar
e Medical School has already demon
!. strated this fact.
f Gamers Sought Truth.
A few years ago the leading foo
Gamers Of the country, believing Il
: the purity OF their product and sus
:, pecting that many OF the publishe
instances OF canned-food poisonin
were unfounded, determined to max
), Independent investigation of all case
:, reported in the newspapers. They ha
organized the National Gamers As
sociation, and they charged this bod
. with the responsibility Of getting /;
!, the truth. The subsequent invest
. cations have shown that there Is
- surprisingly small number of Dor
fide poisonings. particularly when
is considered that the American pu
lie consumes hundreds of millions
tins of food every year.
;. Every canned-food-poison ca
reported in the newspapers for I
-. last dozen years has been careful
- Investigated by this Association, a
g.. practically all have been found 70
"a spurious. The things that get IL
the newspapers as cases Of poisoni
~ by canned food nearly always Pre-
or to be cases of acute indigestion,
A excessive eating. of foreign substan'
getting into food while being prepai
he for the table, of dirty cooking utens
an Of deliberate fraud, or as Il happer
once, even leaky gas pipe in a DIM
room.