INSPECTION OF COMMERCIAL FEEDSTUFFS 



By Philip H. Smithi 



The feed situation as it exists under war conditions is a matter of common 

 knowledge and experience. Commercial feed formulas change almost from 

 day to day as the manufacturer finds it necessary to alter his products on account 

 of government directives or the shortage of vital material. For the greater 

 part manufacturers are to be commended for the skill and ingenuity they have 

 shown in sunrounting the problems with which they were conffonted. 



The Massachusetts feeding stuffs act requires that manufacturers register 

 annually with Feed Control Service the guarantee of protein, fat, and fiber 

 placed on their various products, together with a list of the ingredients from 

 which they are made. Minor changes which did not materially affect the analysis 

 of a feed have previously been allowed. In order not to restrict the free flow of 

 such feeds as are availatle, the manufacturer is now allowed to make any change 

 in his registered feed formulas made necessary by government directive or 

 material shortage without re-registr£ tion provided his guarantee is corrected and 

 he files with Control Service a notice of the change. It is believed that the user 

 has the right to know at all times exactly what he must purchase even though he 

 cannot get exactly what he wants. On the whole, cooperation on the part of 

 manufacturers has been excellent, although in isolated cases guarantee tags have 

 been found to bear only a slight relation to the material they purported to 

 guarantee. 



The scarcity of certain materials ordinarily used in poultry and animal rations 

 and the more general use of substitutes should lead to a somewhat broader 

 examination of feeding stuffs than that required by the feeding stuffs act. This 

 has particular application to the vitamins and mineral ingredients. Examina- 

 tion of poultry feeds should be made to determine that the balance between 

 calcium and phosphorus is not upset and that fluorine is not present in amount 

 sufficient to be detrimental to the animals or poultry fed. 



While 1,340 samples of feeding stuffs have been officially collected and exam- 

 ined, the results will not be published as it is believed that they will convey no 

 useful information when compared with feeding stuffs now on the market, nor 

 can the analyses form a sound basis for judgment in the selection for purchase of 

 feeding stuffs offered at present. 



Considerable time has been spent in the examination of feed ingredients for 

 carotene, riboflavin, and the protein quality index of meat and fish products. 

 Such results should have a more permanent application. Tables of the analyses 

 made and a discussion of the results are therefore presented. 



^The following staff members assisted in the inspection: John W. Kuzmeski, H. Robert DeRose. 

 Albert F. Spelman, Leo V. Crowley, and C. Tyson Smith, chemists; Frederick A. McLaughlin, 

 microscopist; James T. Howard, inspector; Joseph A. Martell, Laboratory Assistant; Cora B. 

 Grover, clerk. 



