INFLUENCE OF PRESERVATIVES AND OTHER 



SUBSTANCES ADDED TO FOODS UPON 



HEALTH AND METABOLISM. 



By HARVEY W. WILEY, M.D. 

 (Read April 25, 1908.) 



In connection with studies of food adulteration, which have been 

 conducted during the past twenty-five years under my direction in 

 the Bureau of Chemistry, frequent evidence was obtained of the 

 addition of certain preserving agents and coloring matters to food 

 products. These bodies are not of the character known as condi- 

 mental ; on the contrary, as a rule, they possess neither appreciable 

 taste nor odor in the quantities in which they are employed. 



In so far as preservatives are concerned, therefore, the consumer 

 would have no certain knowledge of their presence, and in respect 

 to coloring matters, he would likewise be ordinarily deceived, since 

 such coloring matters are often used to imitate the natural tints 

 found in food products. Thus there would be practiced upon the 

 consumer a fraud in that in the purchase and consumption of foods 

 he was buying and consuming articles which are distinctly not foods 

 and the presence of which is a just cause of suspicion. 



The use of chemical preservatives and artificial colors in foods 

 is of quite recent date. I think I may say with safety that if one 

 could go back thirty, or at most, forty years, he would find a food 

 supply practically free, both from chemical preservatives and artifi- 

 cial colors. The rapid development of organic and tinctorial chem- 

 istry during the past forty years has made it possible to offer to 

 manufacturers chemical preservatives of high potency, and colors 

 of great beauty and persistence, at prices which make it entirely 

 possible to use them freely in food products. Inasmuch as the use 

 of these bodies, whatever the claims may be in regard thereto, has 

 for its chief purpose either to cheapen the product itself or to sell 



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