58 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



some product under the name of another, at, perhaps, double its market 

 price. 



Antiseptics 



Antiseptic preservatives are substances to be restricted, if possible, 

 prohibited. This is the conclusion reached in all legislation, in the 

 reports of scientific commissions appointed by governments to inquire 

 into the use of antiseptics in foods, and by the large majority of ex- 

 perts who have studied the effect of the long-continued use of minimum 

 quantities upon the human system. 



Those who employ antiseptics to aid in the preservation of foods do 

 not defend this use because of wholesomeness, but because of condi- 

 tions — honest problems — in the production and sale of soda fountain 

 syrups, tomato catsup and similar articles put up ready to serve, and 

 which remain open for a week or longer until the contents of the 

 package are consumed. And in this defense the reasons come more 

 from the market — ' rough handling in shipping,' ' the hot grocery 

 shelf,' and ' the careless consumer ' — than from problems in pro- 

 duction. 



The antiseptic is the competitive foe of cleanliness and other 

 hygienic practises which should attend throughout the production and 

 sale of foods. The antiseptic is often used in foods of otherwise high 

 standards, but it is more often found substituted for wholesome prac- 

 tises or ingredients. Its use discourages the perfection of healthful 

 ways for keeping foods — chilling, sterilizing, ripening, curing and the 

 combination of one food substance with another — which have not only 

 given us food preservation, but have added delicious and wholesome 

 variety to what we live on. 



Some of the state laws specifically prohibit the use of antiseptics 

 in foods. Other laws prohibit the addition of ' injurious substances ' 

 to food products, and in the enforcement of such provisions, as in 

 Pennsylvania, for example, the court holds that such a provision applies 

 to the use of a harmful antiseptic even in a minimum quantity. In 

 Connecticut and Kentucky, while the law prohibits the addition of 

 ' injurious substances ' to foods, it also requires the use of any anti- 

 septic to be made known to the purchaser or consumer. Under the 

 enforcement of this labeling provision Kentucky, for example, has 

 meats without boracic acid, milk without formaldehyde, jellies and 

 fruit juices without salicylic acid, while some of the manufacturing 

 firms are successfully putting up tomato catsup and soda fountain 

 syrup without the use of benzoic acid or other antiseptic preservatives. 



In a letter to the Kentucky department a manufacturer of tomato 

 soup writes: 



During the season of 1905 and henceforward the use of coal-tar dye and 

 benzoate of soda will be entirely discontinued from our product, for we have 

 arranged to make it entirely from fresh tomatoes in the height of the packing 



