ADULTERATION DEFINED. 9 



it; third, if any valuable or necessary constituent or ingredient has IKH>II wholly or 

 in part abstracted from it; fourth, if it is an imitation of or is sold under the name 

 of another article; fifth, if it consists wholly or in part of a diseased, decomposed, 

 putrid, infected, tainted, or rotten animal or vegetable substance or article, whether 

 manufactured or not, or, in the case of milk, if it is the product of a diseased animal; 

 sixth, if it is colored, coated, polished, or powdered, whereby damage or inferiority 

 is concealed, or if by any means it is made to appear better or of greater value than 

 it really is; seventh, if it contains any added substance or ingredient which is poison- 

 ous or injurious to health: /Yor/W,</, That the provisions of this act shall not apply 

 to mixtures or compounds recogni/ed as ordinary articles or ingredients of articles 

 of food, if each and every package sold or offered for sale bear the name and address 

 of the manufacturer and be distinctly labeled under its own distinctive name and in 

 a manner so as to plainly and correctly show that it is ti mixture or compound, and 

 is not in violation with definitions fourth and seventh of this section. 



The claim is made by some manufacturers that the addition of a 

 preservative to food does not properly constitute adulteration because 

 the preservatives added are of greater commercial value than the foods 

 themselves. Such a claim, however, seems to be nothing but a play 

 upon words. For instance, benzoate of soda has a greater commercial 

 value, weight for weight, than tomatoes, and the-claiin has been made 

 that for that reason its addition to tomatoes actually increases the 

 expense of the preparation of tomato catsup. As a matter of fact, 

 however, it permits the tomato pulp to be prepared in large quantities 

 and preserved in barrels in a much less expensive way than can 1><- 

 done without its use. It is evident, therefore, that even though the 

 preservative employed is more expensive than the substance to 

 .which it is added, the addition is really made for the purpose of cheap- 

 ening the product. It is not for this reason that such a substance is 

 properly called an adulterant, however, but because it is an added 

 foreign substance and is neither a food nor a condiment. These defi- 

 nitions can not be emphasized too strongly. Adulterated foods are 

 not necessarily unwholesome foods. 



The term "misbranded" is appropriately applied to foods incor- 

 rectly described by the label. The word has not the same significance 

 as "adulterated," and yet the two terms may frequently be applied to 

 the same product. For instance, commercial starch is sometimes added 

 to sausage to increase its weight and permit of the use of a larger 

 amount of water or of fatter meat than could otherwise be used. Such 

 a product may properly be deemed adulterated, and at the same time, 

 if the article were properly branded, it might not be open to objection 

 either on the score of unwholesomeness or adulteration. If such an 

 article, however, be sold simply as sausage, the purchaser must natu- 

 rally assume that no substance has been added to increase the weight 

 of the material without a corresponding increase of nutritive value. 

 The addition of starch to sausage, therefore, is not in itself deleterious 

 to health, but in the absence of a proper declaration is a fraud, because 

 it cheapens the article which the customer supposes he is buying. In 



