347 



Mr. Lenxon. Xow. after Food mid J)yu<s, lias ai))')roved it avS to the 

 quality of the product it does not have the authority to say in what 

 size packa^"e it has to be delixered, does it, or does it '( 



Mr. Beckmann. Well, I think the answer is "Yes"' on two counts. 

 Yes it can say the size package you put it in, it can say the labeling 

 on the package and it also says what you can add it to. 



For example, FDA sets up a definition of simple words like bread, 

 flour, with a certain specific specification. In other words, if you devi- 

 ate from the specification of bread you can no longer call it bread. 



Mr. Lennox. In other words, what you are saying to the committee 

 is that you cairt sell it to General Foods or any of the other manu- 

 facturers who use it in their various food products, can you ? 



Mr. Beckmann. No; we cannot unless we are willing to ship it in 

 one pound bags and then of course the onus comes on them as to what 

 they do with it. 



Mr. Lennon. Of course you are forbidden to do that by the Federal 

 Food and Drug Administration. 



Mr. Beckmann. Yes. 



Mr. Lennon. That is specificallj'^ for the record. This committee 

 after the Food and Drug Administration approved this product, I 

 guess it was in about February or March of last year, wasn't it ? 



Mr. Beckmann. Yes, sir. 



Early this year we called on the new Chairman of the National 

 Council, A-^ice President Spiro Agnew, and the new Cabinet members 

 who were members of the Council to see if they could remove this 

 packaging restriction. Everybody says we need this protein, that it 

 ought to be sold to all of the manufacturers in the country who are 

 making food products. 



Who is blocking this thing? Who has the authority to say that as 

 much as this particular product is needed that it can't be sold and our 

 people shouldn't have the nutrition that we seem to be willing to fur- 

 nish the people of the world free through AID. 



Do jou have any comments on that ? How do you think we can move 

 this thing or don't you want to move it ? Do you want to sell this stuff 

 in this country? 



Mr. Beckmann. Yes; we most definitely do. I know our present 

 course of attempting to make progress in this area is to select one or 

 two products on which we could get a change of product specification. 



Of the two that we are presently looking at, one was suggested by 

 Dr. Ley, that is tortilla flour, which is a corn flour, and as far as provid- 

 ing animal protein, is essentially useless to eat. 



The other product is macaroni. Each of these products lend them- 

 selves very well to the addition of fish protein concentrate. 



Mr. Lennon, Don't you think, sir, that it is rather disgraceful that 

 we say to people all over the world, "Here we make a product in our 

 country fit for human consumption, which has high nutritional value 

 and we need it in our country but we won't let our people have it. It 

 is just not good enough for our people in our affluent America, but it is 

 good enough for you people." What do you think ? 



Mr. Beckmann. I agree with that completely. I think the thing that 

 bothers me most is when my own children come home and, because 

 they are too lazy to do anything else, open a box of cereal. This happens 



