62 BULLETIN" 1141, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The dipping and heating of the fruit not only softens it so that it 

 packs well, but it destroys any organisms with which the fruit may 

 have become infected in the curing room. 



LAWS RELATING TO EVAPORATED AND DRIED FRUITS. 



Food Inspection Decision 176, issued by authority of the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture on May 28, 1918, contains a definition and 

 standard for evaporated apples, approved by the joint committee on 

 definitions and standards, which is as follows: 



Evaporated apples are evaporated fruit made from peeled, cored, and sliced 

 apples and contain not more than 24 per cent of moisture as determined by 

 the official method of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. 



As this decision is adopted as a guide in the enforcement of the 

 food and drugs act, it takes precedence over the earlier standard of 

 not more than 27 per cent of moisture, and evaporated apples will 

 be considered as "adulterated," if found to contain more than 24 

 per cent. The official method of determination of moisture content 

 above referred to consists in drying a sample of the material 

 to constant weight in a current of hydrogen or in a vacuum oven. 



The pure food laws of many States also apply in regard to the 

 presence of sulphurous acid, sulphites, or other perservatives in food 

 products. In addition, most of the food laws contain definitions of 

 adulteration which include a statement regarding the presence of a 

 filthy, decomposed, or putrid vegetable substance. 



A California statute, approved March 20, 1903, requires that all 

 fruit, green or dried, contained in boxes, barrels, or packages, and 

 offered for shipment in the State, be so labeled as to designate the 

 county and immediate locality in which the fruit was grown, but 

 a decision of the supreme court of the State declares this law to be 

 unconstitutional. 



The Board of Food and Drug Inspection under the pure-food law 

 enacted at the first session of the Fifty -ninth Congress relative to 

 the quantity of sulphur dioxid permissible in evaporated or desic- 

 cated fruits ruled under date of March 5, 1908, in food-inspection 

 decision 89, amending decision 76, that — 



IS T o objection will be made to foods which contain the ordinary quantities of 

 sulphur dioxid, if the fact that such foods have been so prepared is plainly 

 stated upon the label of each package. 



An abnormal quantity of sulphur dioxid placed in food for the purpose of 

 marketing an excessive moisture content will be regarded as fraudulent adul- 

 teration, under the food and drugs act of June 30, 1906. 



The attention of all interested persons, especially exporters, should 

 further be called to the fact that "the Governments of Prussia and 

 Saxony, in order to unify the practices of inspectors of desiccated 

 fruits, have issued decrees fixing the limit of sulphurous acid in 

 desiccated fruits at 0.125 per cent." 10 



The presence of sulphurous acid in desiccated fruits, and also of 

 zinc in fruit dried on galvanized-wire racks, has frequently been 

 criticized in foreign markets and has been the source of unfavorable 

 judgment, resulting in more or less agitation favoring laws restrict- 

 ing or prohibiting the sale of such fruit. 



10 Notice to exporters of desiccated fruits. (Food Inspection Decision 7.) In U. S. 

 Dept. Agi\, Bur. Chem., Food Inspection Decisions 1 to 2-5, p. 17. 1916. 



