Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-09-14
Washington, D. c., Sept. 11.-Here
is a tyDe of newspaper headline long

familiar to the. American public
Seven of Family III After Eating
Canned Soup" The average reader
shakes. his head over the item and
wonders if the restaurant. where he
ate his lunch served him canned or
fresh vegetables in that salad. He
decides that he will be careful about
eating canned stuff at home.
Fol the average person that is the
end of the affair. He forgets about
the sick family, but the news item
has deposited in his mind a little more
of the sediment that makes up for
him the deep-seated conviction that
canned foods, though cheap, are, haz-
ardous and are to be partaken Of only
at ones peril. r.:
The publication of such an item.
however-and dozens of such items
are published every year in the Amer
lear newspapepS-is only h begin
ming Of an episode for an organization
maintained in Washington by the
packers of commercially canned foods.
This organization. the National Can
ners' association, occupied for the
rlost part with problems in science,
now constitutes a n investigation bu-
reau. It's agents get quickly on the
job-within "a hours, if possible. If
the case is a serious one, difficult of
solution, it will call in the services Of
universities. The investigation will
probably end in q laboratory some
where.
But by whatever means the investi-
cation is conducted, the chances,a are
that the canned foods blamed will be
shown to be innocent and the illness
laid to some other cause AS to the
sick family cited above, the chemists
test tube demonstrated that the illness
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 any ba-
sis in fact for the belief that such
food is dangerous, there certainly is
little basis for it now. The unmerit-
ed evil reputation of timed food is
kept alive today principally by doc
tors. either through Ignorance or care
lessness. A family suddenly becomes
ILL.,, obviously the victims of poison.
The family doctor inquiries Immediate
ly what the members have eaten. If
by any chance canned food of any
sort has beer on the men it is
enough. The doctor promptly names
the cu1prit, and the newspapers have
another sensational item. The doctor
may not know that science has now
shown that the presumption Of guilt
lies just as heavily, If not more heav-
lily, upon the fresh food eaten by his
patients. Indeed, 1t is probably a safe
statement that fresh foods today are
more likely to be unwholesome than
canned foods. The laboratory of the
Harvard Medical School has already
demonstrated this fact.
Gamers Sought Truth.
"A few years: g the leading food
the purity OF their product and ssus-
pecting that many of the published
instances Of canned food poisoning
were, unfounded, determined to make
investigation Of all cases
reported in the newspapers. They had
organized the National Canners' assoc
citation. and they charged this body
with the responsibility sof getting at
the truth. The subsequent investiga-
lions have shown that there is b sur
prisingly small number Of bona fide
poisonings, particularly when It Ia
considered that the American public
consumes hundreds Of millions of tins
Of food every year.
Every Canned -food-poisoning case
reported in the newspapers for the
last dozen years has been carefully in
yestigated by this association, and
practically all have been found to be
spurious The things that get into
the newspapers az cases OF poisoning
by scanned food nearly always prove
TO be cases OF acute Indigestion, OF
excessive eating, OF foreign substances
getting Into food while being pre-
pared for the table, IL dirty cooking
utensils. Of deliberate fraud. OF as it
happened once, ever q leaky gas
pipe In dining room.
AZ a8SrinfS b~y-pfoduct OF these In
vestisattons. four murders have been
uncovered by the agents Of the as
ISOLATION and nj lei OF suicide re-
Eyealed. One woman poisoned her hus.
band by putting Paris green into can
med sardines. The sardines the M
selves were blamed for the death unti1
Eths canning experts found the I'd
niinistersd poison. a woman commit
ted suicide and the phyEician 10 save
her famlv gom disgracs. e4stared