38 The Bulletin.- 



FEESH MEATS. 



(meat, sausage, oysters, and fish). 



""''Meat is any clean, sound, dressed, and properly prepared edible 

 part of animals in good health at the time of slaughter, and if it 

 bears a name descriptive of its kind, composition, or origin, it cor- 

 responds thereto. The term 'animals' herein used, includes not 

 only mammals, but fi^^h, fowl, crustnceans, mollnsks, and all other 

 animals used as food. 



"Fresh meat is meat from animals recently slaughtered and ]»rop- 

 erly cooled until delivered to the consumer. 



"Cold-storage meat is meat from animals recently slaughtered and 

 preserved by refrigeration." 



Meat is deemed adulterated if treated ^vith any of the substances 

 declared deleterious and dangerous to health by the State Food Law, 

 or with any antiseptic or chemical preservative or dye-stuif whatso- 

 ever, whose use and purpose is to retard, prevent, or mask decomposi- 

 tion. In addition to the above, sausage shall be deemed adulterated if 

 it is composed in any part of liver, lungs, kidneys, or other viscera of 

 animals : Provided, that the use of animal intestines as sausage cas- 

 ino's shall not be deemed an adulteration. 



The principal adulteration in fresh meats is the use of chemical 

 preservatives on them. These preservatives are the principal con- 

 stituents of preparations which are sold to meat men under various 

 trade names, as Liebig's Conserver, Preservaline, Freezine, Freez- 

 Em, Froze-Em, Frostine, Refrigcrine, and many others. These 

 preparations are usually guaranteed to be harmless, but the guaranty 

 is of course worthless. 



Most of these preservatives are drugs, which, when used as medi- 

 cines, have to be given with care. Their use in foods, to say the 

 least, is exceedingly questionable, and, as in nearly all cases, their 

 use is unnecessary; they should not be employed. Their use in 

 foods offered for sale in North Carolina is in violation of the State 

 Food Law. 



A great deal of the fresh meat and sausage is prepared and sold 

 by butchers and other meat men, who, when they use the chemical 

 preservatives, know not what they are dispensing to their customers. 



SAMPLES EXAMINED. 



Under the head of fresh meats, exclusive of fish .and oysters, 

 though including sausage, 108 samples, collected from the various 

 towns of the State were examined. Fifty-six, or about 52 per cent 



•Extracts from standards published elsewhere in this report. 



