232 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



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. 



6. The names of food products herein defined usually agree 

 with existing American trade or manufacturing usage, but where 

 such usage is not clearly established or where trade names con- 

 fuse two or more articles for which specific designations are 

 desirable, preference is given to one of the several trade names 

 applied. 



7. Standards are based upon data representing materials 

 produced under American conditions and manufactured by 

 American processes or representing such varieties of foreign 

 articles as are chiefly imported for American use. 



8. The standards fixed are such that a departure of the 

 articles to which they apply, above the maximum or below the 

 minimum limit presctibed, is evidence that such articles are of 

 inferior or abnormal quality. 



9. The limits fixed as standard are not necessarily the 

 extremes authentically recorded for the article in question, 

 because such extremes are commonly due to abnormal conditions 

 of production and are usually accompanied by marks of inferi- 

 ority or abnormality readily perceived by the producer or manu- 

 facturer. 



