PURE FOOD LEGISLATION 59 



season which will enable us to produce a palatable looking article without the 

 color, and relieves us from the necessity of putting away stock and preserving 

 it with benzoate of soda to avoid fermentation. 



In a letter from one of the meat packers it is brought out that 

 one manufacturer is required to use boracic acid to maintain a com- 

 petitive keeping quality with the other manufacturers, if there is no 

 law or enforcement of law to prevent or make public the use of anti- 

 septics in meats. 



Writing of the experiment with tomato catsup without an anti- 

 septic, the manufacturing head of one of the large firms says : 



I believe that within five years, if that long, we could create ideal condi- 

 tions in this country, and the consumer could be educated to take better care 

 of such goods as are perishable and liable to spoil on his hands if not con- 

 sumed within a certain time. Smaller packages would help to a large extent 

 in that direction. In fact, there are numerous ways by which eventually we 

 may accomplish that which is desirable to be done. 



The head of the market end of the firm, writing about the experi- 

 ment later says : 



We are making a strenuous effort to have every variety of our goods abso- 

 lutely pure and free from any antiseptic whatever. But you appreciate thor- 

 ougly the enormous undertaking this is, and, further, the great interest which 

 we have at stake which makes us proceed slowly. Starting several years ago 

 with our experiments on tomato catsup, we put out at first five or six thousand 

 dozen; the next year we doubled that; the next year we doubled that again; 

 this year we are going to put out approximately four hundred thousand dozen 

 catsup, which will be absolutely free from any coloring matter or antiseptic. 

 With this season's work a success, we will have demonstrated beyond any possi- 

 bility of doubt the putting up of catsup without any antiseptic. After that 

 you will be free to say to every manufacturer who sells otherwise, ' Look at the 

 thousands of dozens of catsup that . . . has on the market which stand the 

 test of shipping, of climate, and, afterwards, the hot shelf of the grocery store, 

 and still the consumer gets the goods in prime condition and is well satisfied 

 with the flavor.' 



Tomato catsup has been claimed to be the most difficult product to 

 put out without some antiseptic. 



Added or Otherwise 

 The provisions of the food laws and of the proposed National Pure 

 Food Law apply principally to adulteration by addition and to adul- 

 teration by taking away. There is a third class of adulteration. Foods 

 may be unfit for consumption by reason of inferior methods of produc- 

 tion or preparation, carelessness in handling, inherent disease, and the 

 spoilage to which foods are subject by their very nature. Many 

 foods at certain stages of production or preparation are unfit for con- 

 sumption — a green peach and new whiskey. Many of the fruits and 

 fruit or grain products contain in their composition certain normal 

 poisons, poisons which a food law would prohibit being added. It is 



