112 THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



frequently the case, one drop of lemon oil is not poisoned; he is only 

 robbed of his money. But when he buys fruit preserved with salicylic 

 acid he risks both money and health. 



The appalling increase in food adulterants in the last twenty years 

 has made an imperative necessity for stringent food laws. 



F. N. Barrett, editor of the American Grocer, stated to the Commit- 

 tee on Interstate Commerce of the last Congress that the 80,000,000 

 people of the United States consume each year $8,000,000,000 worth of 

 food and drink. This statement was based upon an average individual 

 expenditure of $100 for each person. He stated that 2 per cent, of this 

 amount is paid for adulterated foods, which would make the annual cost 

 of adulterated foods in the United States $160,000,000. Dr. Wiley of the 

 Department of Agriculture, upon several occasions has estimated that 

 5 per cent, of all foods consumed in this country are adulterated. This 

 estimate would make the total cost of our annual adulterated food pro- 

 duct $400,000,000. It has been estimated by other officials of the 

 Department of Agriculture that each year there is sold in the United 

 States 2 per cent., or $160,000,000 worth, of foods adulterated in such a 

 manner as to be injurious to the public health, and that other forms of 

 adulteration not injurious to health, but dishonest because of being 

 falsely labeled or deprived of their natural purity, would make the total 

 extent of food adulteration each year 15 per cent., an estimate which 

 would make food adulteration in this country cost the enormous amount 

 of $1,400,000,000. 



All the figures given are mere estimates, but, judging from the re- 

 ports and statements of the various food commissioners of the United 

 States, the men who are thoroughly familiar with the practical side of 

 the grocery trade, and from my own personal knowledge obtained 

 through eight years of administration of the dairy and food laws of 

 Wisconsin, I am satisfied that the statement of Dr. Wiley is conserva- 

 tive and approximately correct. 



Tea has been adulterated, coffee beans made out of rye paste creased 

 and colored to look like the real thing, flour adulterated with white 

 earth, candy with the same material, common spirit vinegar sold for 

 cider vinegar, a riot of adulteration in all forms of spices, butter adulter- 

 ated with water, casein, lard and tallow; smoked hams that smoke never 

 touched and which obtained their color and flavor from a poisonous 

 solution called "liquid smoke;" baking powders with labels written by 

 the prince of liars, cream colored artificially and preserved by rank 

 poison; sausages made of stale meat unfit for human use, brightly col- 

 ored by an injurious preservative; maple sprup made out of brown 

 sugar and a beautiful label; New Orleans molasses as nearly like the 

 genuine as a decrepit negro would be like the Venus of Milo; milk, the 

 special food of babies and invalids and the universal food of the people, 

 diluted, skimmed and poisoned; veal from calves killed within forty- 

 eight hours after birth; cheese robbed of butter fat and filled with hog 

 fat; canned goods full of water and injurious preservatives; artificial 



