DEFINITIONS AND STANDARDS OF BUTTER 575 



two and five tenths (82.5) per cent, of milk fat. By act of 

 Congress approved August 2, 1886, and May 9, 1902, butter 

 may also contain added coloring matter." 



This standard has never been and is not now enforced. 



Within recent years the Federal Joint Committee on Defi- 

 nitions and Standards for Food Products has had under advise- 

 ment a revision of this butter standard and definition. This 

 joint committee consists of three members each, the United 

 States Bureau of Chemistry, the American Association of Offi- 

 cial Agricultural Chemists and the Association of American 

 Dairy, Food, and Drug Officials, under the chairmanship of the 

 chief of the Bureau of Chemistry. At the time of the comple- 

 tion of this manuscript, no decision had as yet been reached. 1 ' 2 - 8 ' 4 



Numerous states have definitions and standards for butter, 

 most of them similar to the standard adopted by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture as per circular No. 19. Few 

 states have standards differing slightly from the above stan- 

 dard. The State of Minnesota, 5 by Act of the State Legisla- 

 ture 1915, amended its section relating to the use of preserva- 

 tives as follows: 



"Dairy Products Preservatives. Sec. 1756. No person 

 shall manufacture for sale, advertise or sell, any mixture or 

 compound designed, or offered for sale or use, as an adulterant, 

 preservative or renovator of milk, cream, butter or cheese, or as 

 a neutralizer of the acidity of milk, cream, butter or cheese ; nor 

 shall any person add, or apply to milk, cream, butter or cheese, 

 any borax, boric. acid, salicylic acid, formaldehyde, formalin or 

 other anti-ferment or preservative, nor any alcohol, viscogen, 

 lime, salpeter, sal-soda, soda ash, or other neutralizer, provided 

 however, that this section shall not apply to pure salt added to 

 butter or cheese." 



The above section makes the practice of reducing the acid- 

 ity in cream unlawful in the State of Minnesota. 



1 Veeder. McManus, Jones and McCabe, Attys. for Swift & Co., Sugges- 

 tions for a Standard for Butter, presented to the Joint Committee on 

 Definitions and Standards, November, 1917. 



3 Hunziker, Butter Standards. Address before Joint Committee on Defi- 

 nitions and Standards. Chicago, May, 1917. 



8 McKay. Pacts about Butter, Suggestions for a Standard, June, 1918. 



4 Hunziker, Bouska, Borman and McKay, Statements on the Subject 

 of Definitions and Standards of Butter, Presented to the Joint Committee 

 on Definitions and Standards, September, 1918. 



5 Farrell, Manual of the Dairy and Food Laws, Rules and Regulations, 

 1915. 



