FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1936 25 
antioxidant materials which will meet food regulatory requirements. 
The so-called natural antioxidants of certain edible materials are at 
present receiving widespread investigation. The cereal flours come 
under this classification. 
In experiments carried on in our laboratories the addition of oat 
flour to fish oils was found to increase the fresh life of fish oils up to 
60 percent as determined by peroxide formation and organoleptic 
test. The oat flour however did not prolong the induction period 
preceding autocatalytic peroxide formation but instead appeared to 
decrease the rate of peroxide formation. Further, the oat flour did 
not retard materially oxidative destruction of vitamin A. These 
data and related information were incorporated in a paper presented 
at the Pittsburgh meeting of the American Chemical Society and will 
appear shortly in the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. 
More recent work with cereal mixtures and cereal extracts indicates 
the possibility of much greater protection against rancidity than 
demonstrated by oat flour alone. These data show also that vitamin 
A protection is obtained with the latter materials and is closely asso- 
ciated with prolongation of the time preceding autocatalytic peroxide 
formation. 
DETERMINING THE FAT CONTENT OF FISH MEAL 
In Investigational Report No. 1 of the Bureau of Fisheries, entitled 
“The Menhaden Industry’, which was published in 1931, data were 
given which demonstrated the fact that the extractable fat in fish 
meal decreased during storage. This was attributed to some of the 
oil becoming oxidized and consequently less soluble in the test solvent. 
This condition together with the fact that uniform methods of 
determining fat in fish meal are not followed in testing laboratories 
has given rise to an aggravating situation. The Bureau has under- 
taken an investigation of the problem because of its relation to the 
sale and distribution of fish meal. The studies are concerned with the 
relative efficiency of various solvents as concerned with degree of 
extraction and rate of extraction, the nature of the material extracted, 
and the relation of oxidation of the oil in meal to the efficiency of the 
various solvents. Attention will be given also to the possibility of 
determining and reporting fat content in a manner which will be 
indicative of the nature of the fat in the meal. A discussion of the 
problem and scope of work contemplated was given before the meeting 
of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists in Washington, 
D. C., in December 1936, but the actual experimental work has not 
progressed to a point warranting discussion here. 
CHEMICAL PRESERVATION OF FISH AND FISH WASTE 
As in 1935, we continued during 1936 in our College Park labora- 
tories a cooperative investigation with research associates employed 
by the Aquacide Co., Washington, D. C., in making tests of various 
chemical preservatives used on raw fish and raw fish waste in the 
production of fish meals and oils. In some cases, the meals and oils 
made from these chemically preserved samples were tested with 
respect to edibility and palatability on albino rats in our nutrition 
laboratory. The results of these experiments have been exceedingly 
encouraging and show clearly that fish may be preserved in relatively 
dilute chemical solutions. The products which were studied included 
salmon, menhaden, cod, and haddock waste, redfish waste, sea herring, 
