702 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Standards of purity for food products ( U. S. Dept. Agr., Office of the Secretary, 

 Circ. JO, pp. Id). — The food definitions and offifial standards of purity for food prod- 

 ucts for the United States are given, which were prepared by a committee representing 

 the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, commissioned by the Secretary of 

 Agriculture in accordance with an act of Congress of March 3, 1903. The connnit- 

 tee consisted of W. Frear, E. II. Jenkins, M. A. Scovell, II. A. Weber, and II. W. 

 Wiley. The foods include meat and the princii)al meat products, milk and its 

 products, sugars and related substances, and condiments. 



The standards, the committee state, are based "upon data representing materials 

 produced under American conditions and manufactured by American processes or 

 representing such varieties of foreign articles as are chiefly imported for American 

 use. 



"The standards fixed are such that a departure of the articles to which they apply, 

 abo\e the maximum or below the minimum limit prescribed, is evidence that such 

 articles are of inferior or abnormal quality. 



"The limits fixed as standard are not necessarily the extremes authentically recorded 

 for the article in question, because such extremes are commonly due to abnormal 

 conditions of production and are usually accompanied by marks of inferiority or 

 abnormality readily perceived by the producer or manufacturer." 



The standards adopted for lard and dairy products follow: 



" Standard lard and standard leaf lard are lard and leaf lard, respectively, free from 

 rancidity, containing not more than 1 per cent of substances, other than fatty acids 

 not fat, necessarily incorporated therewith in the process of rendering, and standard 

 leaf lard has an iodin number not greater than 60. . . . 



"Standard milk is milk containing not less than 12 per cent of total solids and not 

 less than 8.5 per cent of sclids-not-fat, nor less than 3.25 per cent of milk fat. . . . 



"Buttermilk is the product that remains when butter is removed from milk or cream 

 in the process of churning. 



"Pasteurized milk is standard milk that has been heated below boiling, but suffi- 

 ciently to kill most of the active organisms present and immediately cooled to 50° F. 

 or lower to retard the development of their spores. 



"Sterilized milk is standard milk that has been heated at the temperature of boiling 

 water or higher for a length of time sufficient to kill all organisms present. 



"Condensed milk is milk from which a considerable portion of water has been 

 evaporated. 



"Sweetened condensed milk is milk from which a considerable portion of water has 

 been evaporated and to which sugar (sucrose) has been added." 



According to the standards, skim milk shall contain not less than 9.25 per cent of 

 milk solids. Condensed milk and standard sweetened condensed milk are standard 

 sweetened and unsweetened milks condensed until they contain, respectively, not 

 less than 28 per cent milk solids, of which not less than one-fourth shall be milk fat. 

 The standard condensed skim milk is skim milk from which a considerable portion 

 of water has l)een evaporated. 



"Standard milk fat or butter fat has a Reichert-Meissl number not less than 24 

 and a specific gravity not less than 0.905 (40° C. /40° C. )." 



Standard cream is required to contain not less than 18 per cent of milk fat. 

 Evaporated cream is defined as cream from which a considerable portion of water 

 has been evaporated. Standard butter is required to contain not less than 82.5 per 

 cent butter fat. Standard renovated or process butter must contain not less than 16 

 per cent water and at least 82.5 per cent butter fat. Whole milk or full cream 

 cheese containing in the water-free substance not less than 50 per cent butter fat is 

 designated as the standard. 



