8o mains agricultural experimlnt station. i905. 



Food Standards. 



It is from the nature of the case impracticable for a legisla- 

 ture to establish food standards. This is a matter that calls for 

 careful research on the part of experts. It has, therefore, 

 become customary, both in state and national legislation, to place 

 the responsibility of the establishment of standards upon the 

 executive officer. Section 5 of the above cited law empowers 

 the Director of the A'laine Agricultural Experiment Station "to 

 adopt or fix standards of purity, quality or strength when such 

 standards are not specified or fixed by law and shall publish 

 them, together with such other information concerning articles 

 of food as may be of public benefit." 



The Association of Official Agricultural Chemists of the 

 United States has for some years been preparing definitions and 

 schedules for such standards. The demand for these standards 

 became so urgent as to lead Congress by an act approved June 

 3, 1902, to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to co-operate 

 with the above named association for the accomplishment of this 

 work. As a result, although the work is still incomplete, stand- 

 ards for the more important food products have already been 

 fixed and established by the Secretary of Agriculture, acting for 

 the United States. 



PRINCIPLES ON WHICH THE STANDARDS ARE BASED. 



The general considerations which guided the committee of 

 the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists in preparing 

 the standards for food products are thus stated by them : 



1. The standards are expressed in the form of definitions, 

 with or without accompanying specifications of limit in compo- 

 sition. 



2. The main classes of food articles are defined before the 

 subordinate classes" are considered. 



3. The definitions are so framed as to exclude from the 

 articles defined substances not included in the definitions. 



4. The definitions include, where possible, those qualities 

 which make the articles described wholesome for human food. 



5. A term defined in any of the several schedules has the 

 same meaning wherever else it is used in this report. 



