THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE FOOD PROBLEM 123 



earlier than in the case of food, definite regulations were 

 adopted, requiring chemical and bacterial tests to be made for 

 the protection of the public. In other words, just as soon as 

 the public realized that the individual could not protect him- 

 self, it undertook to protect itself through a public agency. 



155. Commerce and food supplies. In addition to changing 

 conditions of manufacture and living, another fact made it 

 necessary for the public to protect the purchaser of foods. 

 Growing commerce has brought to us food products of foreign 

 lands, in regard to which we have no standards and no judg- 

 ment. As individuals, we know nothing of the nutritive value 

 or the possible dangers of these imported materials. This makes 

 it very easy for dealers and manufacturers to mix cheaper 

 materials with those that already enjoyed a wide market, or to 

 substitute cheaper materials for more expensive ones. Spices 

 and coffee were thus among the first things to be adulterated. 



Glucose, which is much cheaper than sugar, can be mixed 

 with jellies, preserves, candies, and other food products con- 

 taining sugar, thus increasing the bulk and at the same time 

 reducing the cost of a given quantity of finished product. 



When it was found that a pretty good imitation of butter 

 could be made out of beef fat, at a cost much lower than the 

 cost of butter, people substituted oleomargarine for butter in 

 cooking and baking foods to sell, thus increasing their profits. 

 And in a similar way cottonseed oil was substituted for, or 

 mixed with, olive oil. 



In all these cases no harm was done to the bodies of the people 

 who ate the substitutes or admixtures. Starch and glucose and oleo- 

 margarine and cottonseed oil are perfectly harmless and very useful 

 carbohydrates and fats. The harm done was of a commercial kind. 

 People do not like to pay sugar or honey prices for glucose, or butter 

 prices for oleo, or milk prices for water. And the merchant who is 

 sellmg pure products does not like to compete with adulterated or 

 substituted products; it puts him at a disadvantage in the market 

 and may drive him out altogether. 



