INFLUENCE OF FOOD PRESERVATIVES AND ARTI 

 FICIAL COLORS ON DIGESTION AND HEALTH. 



I. BORIC ACID AND BORAX. 



INTRODUCTION. 

 OBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION. 



The object of the investigation described in the following pages is 

 to "determine the effect of certain preservatives upon digestion and 

 health. The work was undertaken in accordance with the authority 

 conferred by Congress in the act (32 Stat. L., 286) making appropria- 

 tions for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ended 

 June 30, 1903. In that act the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized 

 u to investigate the character of proposed food preservatives and 

 coloring matters, to determine their relation to digestion and to 

 health, and to establish principles which should guide their use." 



The necessity for an investigation of this kind is found in the very 

 general use of certain chemical compounds for preserving foods and 

 of certain coloring matters for imparting to foods a tint resembling 

 that of nature, which they may have lost, or of producing in food 

 products certain colors which are attractive to the eye of the consumer. 



The use of preservatives in food products is as old as civilization, 

 and there is no occasion in these investigations for adding to the 

 studies already made of the long-established preservative agents. 

 Moreover, these preservatives are condimental in character and reveal 

 themselves at once by taste or odor to the consumer. The more 

 important of the common and long-established preservatives are salt, 

 sugar, vinegar, and wood smoke. Alcohol has also been long used as 

 a food preservative, but does not rank in antiquity and in generality 

 of use with those just mentioned. 



One of the chief characteristics of the modern chemical preserva- 

 tive is that it is often almost without taste or odor, and for this rea- 

 son its presence in a food product, unless specifically proclaimed, 

 would not be noticed by the consumer. But while this is true of 

 most of the preservatives used in the preparation of foods (except the 

 condimental substances mentioned), in the quantities employed, this 



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