The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1951-09-28
Peril On Your Food Shelf

| known to be harmful. Indeed, most
OF the big professors of nationally
advertised products-companies. like
Swift, General Foods, Quaker Oats
= maintain elaborate laboratories
where tests are constantly being
made to safeguard the public. An or
ganization like the A & has sew
eral thousand people continually en-
gagged in laboratory and field inspec-
ton of its products. They, as con-
sumers themselves and as honest bus
| lnesSmen, are as anxious as anybody
to ensure pure and wholesome food
supply.
But here is the rub: There is
absolutely no law to prevent a
small, interruptions manufacturer
from turning a quick dollar by
using a substitute which is INFESTED
or, at best, inadequately tested.
And most important of all, there
is also no law to compel testing
new chemicals to determine what the
cumulative effect would be over
period of time. On the whole, scien-
lists are not so much concerned with
the acutely toxic chemicals whose
deadliness can be readily detected.
They are more concerned with the
small and insiduous effects of sub
stances which do harm only after be-
ing fed to people for months or years.
Under the present setup, the Food
and Drug Administration can act
legally only after the food product
has been put on the market
1t is important to contrast this sit
uation in regard to food with the
situation in regard to drugs. In the
latter, no such peril exists. The pub
lie is adequately protected. A n
amendment to the Food and Drug
Act, passed in 1888, requires that
manufacturer submit evidence to
show that new chemical is nonin-
furious before he introduces it-even
if the tests take 10 years to complete.
Since no similar safeguard exists
with food, many chemicals are used
with no real knowledge of what they
will do to the human system. Ger
tain ones which cannot be bought
in drugstore without a prescrip-
ton, for example, can be bought in
discriminatory in a feed store to be
fed to livestock or sprayed on crops,
often ending up on our table.
A decade or so ago this situation |
was relatively innocuous. But since
the war, during which new agents |
were discovered almost daily, the use
Of chemicals in foodstuffs has bios |
Somed and spread like the proverbial |
green bay tree.
In Massachusetts, to cite a case,
4 big brewery not long ago got the
dea of using hydrofluoric acid in
is beer. 1t made unnecessary the
fertilization of the beer, a tedious
process. The acid, however, is a SER
Gus poison. Before the Government
vas able to step in and stop the
the beer had been sold all
'ver the country.
In Indiana, a manufacturer took
0 using mineral oil in his popcorn
instead of butter and sther fats. He
reated the oil with butter color,
abeled it edible fat" and sold it
II over the United States. Mineral
Ill will not only wash out the fat
oluable vitamins in the food it is
sed in, but, by lining the stomach,
will prevent the absorption of neces-
airy vitamins from other foods eat
n, leading to dangerous vitamin
The fact that the popcorn
vas sold largely to children made !
he case more tragic.
There are hundreds of other
cases - perhaps not so dramatic ,
but potentially just as serious. {
There is nothing wrong with chem
GALS in themselves. Some, like COM G
ION salt, have been used long time {
/ food products to enhance both '
aste and nutritive value. The in t
reduction of vitamin d, another
hemical, into milk has undoubtedly
roved beneficial, and reflects a i
esire on the part of manufacturers I
, give consumers better and richer S
roducts. The enrichment of hominy S
rits with component of the vita S
lin B complex has worked wonders
wiping out the disease of pellagra :.
certain poorer sections of the :,
outh, where that food is a staple. :.
In general, nutritionists agree that y
D new chemical should be added, v
owever unless it is definitely proved :
lfe, serves a useful purpose, and :,
not a substitution in whole or in
art for natural food element. =
Such is not the case at present. !,
ere are few foods in which chemi- ..
is are playing a questionable role: s
POULTRY: Chicken producers, es- r.
-. IL, j IL ! -