BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY. 



365 



or in part for the article. From time to time the bureau has issued 

 service and regulatory announcements giving the weights of certain 

 foods, exclusive of liquid, which cans of different sizes should hold. 

 During the year many seizure actions were directed against this form 

 of violation, especially against canned shellfish. Several seizures of 

 slack-filled canned vegetables were also made. As none of these 

 actions have been contested, it is to be anticipated that the packers 

 of the goods in question will in future market full-packed cans. 



Imitation fruit beverages. — Eeference has been made to violations 

 occurring in nonstaple products which are difficult to demonstrate 

 but which result in imposition upon the purchaser. In this class are 

 the so-called fruit beverages and fruit beverage sirups, which of late 

 years have been widely distributed under labels implying that they 

 are largely or wholly of fruit origin. These products frequently owe 

 their distinctive flavors to synthetics and contain little or no real 

 fruit ingreclient. Interstate traffic is restricted almost entirely to 

 the concentrated sirups from which the finished products are nianu- 

 factured. The bureau has therefore been able to proceed by seizure 

 only against the concentrates, leaving to State or local officials the 

 task of making sure that the finished beverages as locally distributed 

 are properly labeled. The seizures which have been made have led to 

 a satisfactory revision of the labels used upon interstate shipments of 

 many of the beverage concentrates. 



SUMMARY OF PROSECUTIONS AND SEIZURES. 



Table 2 indicates the magnitude of the regulatory operations under- 

 taken throughout the year, which can not be given in detail in a short 

 report. 



Tabo; 2. — Suininary of prosecutions and seizures. 



WORK OF STAFF LABORATORIES. 



As a supplement to the statement of completed regulatory work 

 which represents essentially the efforts of the bureau's field force, 

 the work of the regulatory staff laboratories in Washington may be 

 brieflv recorded. 



