THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE FOOD PROBLEM 125 



fats, and carbohydrates for which we buy the food, poisons 

 produced by the rotting, or decay. Regulations concerning the 

 sale of prepared foods in which such material is present have 

 been adopted by the governments of nearly all the states ; 

 and the shipment of such preparations from one state to 

 another is prohibited by federal laws. Many cities also have 

 local regulations that enable the officials to seize and destroy 

 any such unsuitable food which they may find, in addition 

 to penalizing the dealers or manufacturers by means of fines 

 or imprisonment. 



157. Use of preservatives. The use of preservatives in 

 canned or prepared foods, such as benzoate of soda, has been 

 under discussion for a long time, and many careful experi- 

 ments have been made to discover the possible injury that such 

 materials may cause. It was found in one set of experiments 

 that although benzoate of soda is injurious if taken in large 

 quantities, one would have to eat a peck or more of catsup 

 containing this preservative before he took in enough to hurt 

 him. The objection, however, to the use of these preservatives 

 is not that these substances are in themselves harmful. The 

 objection is that their use makes possible the admixture of 

 slightly decomposed vegetables into the manufactured product. 

 Without the use of the preservatives the manufacturer would 

 be compelled to use only clean, fresh material. At the present 

 time our federal laws protect us in this matter only to the ex- 

 tent of requiring the manufacturer to state on the outside of the 

 package what amount, if any, of preservative is present. But 

 the buyer has to take the chance of seeing this warning on the 

 package, and of knowing its full meaning when he does see it. 



In the case of milk, preservatives are not to be tolerated, 

 since the only kinds that can be used without the buyer's 

 detecting them are apt to be injurious in themselves. 



158. Food protection. The second class of dangers referred 

 to above, that of infection by disease germs, is a purely local 

 problem, since it has to do with the food brought to the 



