Imperial Valley press., 1943-06-20
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison


This is not intended to be a scare
story. but-the amazing ingenuity
OF the cheap ChiSelers who seek to
profiteer ton wartime shortages is
perhaps most Strikingly illustrated
By the extra chores which the u. S.
FCod and Drug Administration has
had to take on to protect the public
from adulteration. filth. decomposi-
ton and Just plain crooked cheat
ing
Coffee has been found mixed
with roasted cereals.
Dried grass has been sold as tea.
Imported spices, hard to get he
cause of shipping shortages, have
been found adulterated with from
60 per cent to SO per cent corn
starch.
Canned sardines, labeled pack
ed in pure olive OIL" have been
analyycd and found TO he packed
in corn oil or cottonseed oil
Saccharinc has been found sub
SIttutiu ttT sutsd' ds " o"'N''h'''
White poppy seed have been dyed
the same color as the better blue
variety. in order to get the pre-
mium price which the latter bring
on the market. now that imports of
Belgian seeds have been stopped.
Egg substitutions are some of the
most Ilagrant. Cornstarch has been
substituted for egg in prepared
mixes sold to bakers. Artifically
colored. the cornstarch gives the
same rich. yellow appearance to a
cake that good cook provides
through liberal beating in of egg
yolks. but the food value Just isn't
there In egg-maCaroni the STAN
dard 5i2 per cent egg content has
been found to be cut to per cent
in some brands. the yellow color
ing in this case being supplied by
a coal tar dye which is considered
injurious to health.
VIOLATES IN MINORITY, But
Mayonnaise and salad dressings
have been found to contain not the
usual olive. cotton. soy bean or
otter vegetable oils which are
scarce, but instead contain
mineral oil which has no particular
food waite and is, moreover, a
purgative.
These are Some of the most
giaring examples of wartime food
adulterations, but it should not be
imagined from this list that every
Gamer of sardines. every packer of
tea, coffee, spices or processed
foods is guilty of these denominations.
Violators are decidedly in the
minority, and as matter of fact,
many of the reports on violations
come from responsible food
handlers who are as much interested
as the public in seeing that the
fringe of outlaw operators is clip
ped off the carpet of respectability.
But the war has brought an in
crease in the number of these
cheap cheats. The shortages of
staple supplies have aggravated
the temptations to use substitutes
so as to meet the demand and
make an increased profit, and
this has increased the job of the
enforcement agencies of the
federal and state governments.
Food and Drug Administration
officials anticipated this increase
in violations. and they got it. In
addition to the adulterations, there
arc numerous cases of offering for
sale filthy and decomposed foods.
These are normally the most fire.
quent and most troublesome cases
which Food and Drug Administra-
tion inspectors have to handle, Loss
of skilled labor plus a let-down in
care are the big contributing fac
tors. Some of the case histories of
Food and Drug Administration in
spections. seizures, criminal prosecu-
tions and injunCtions are enough to
curl your insides into q permanent
wave. not only because of their un-
hygienic nature, but also because 1t
Is unbelievable that the so-called
human beings who run these
shadowy and shady businesses
could stoop so low. Black market