118 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' C* )-VVEXTIOX. 



SULPHURED FRUIT AND ITS RELATION TO THE NATIONAL 



PURE FOOD LAW. 



By ARTHUR R. BRIGGS. Pkeside.xt of the Califobxia State Board of Trade. 



The people of no state in the Union were more zealous advocates of a 

 National Pure Food Law than were the people of California. Adultera- 

 tion of food products in other states, suggested the need of statutory 

 reeulation in the interest of life and health and as a protection to manu- 

 faetur.:^rs of pure food products. Therefore, gratification and general 

 approval were expressed on the part of producers in this State, when 

 Congress on June 30. 1906, passed the ''National Food and Drugs Act." 

 One of the principal features of the Act was to prevent the manufac- 

 ture, or sale, of adulterated or deleterious food products, and it pre- 

 scribed the method under which adulterated foods and drugs misrht 

 be sold. 



How comprehensively the term "deleterious foods'' was to be inter- 

 preted, how a determination was to be made in respect to them, and the 

 status of manufacturers and producers pending a determination, were 

 matters too remote for immediate consideration and excited little 

 interest. Later, as the law was put in operation and its scope was 

 l)rnuoht to their attention, manufacturers and distributors of food 

 pii ' liii t- were much exercised over the particular features of the law 

 which att'ected their business. 



Under the Act three cabinet officers were charged with the duty of 

 making rules and regulations for carrying out its provisions, the specific 

 terms being set forth as follows : 



Sec. 3. Thar the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the 



Secretary of Commei' - ' l T.: '' : . -i-iH make uniform rules and regulations for 

 caiiyina our the pro- nckuling the collection and examination of 



specimens of foods : ired or offered for sale in the District of 



Columbia, or in any T-t^i : ly lue United States, or which shall be offered for sale 

 in unbroken packages in any State other than that in which they shall have been 

 respectively manufactured or produced, or which shall be received from any foreign 

 country, or intended for shipmnnr to any forei::n country, or which may be sub- 

 mitted for i^xaminariMU by the chief he.ilrh. food, or drug officer of any State. Ter- 

 ritory. T 1. i ■ jlumbia. or at any domestic or foreign port through which 

 such 1 . interstate commerce, or for exi)ort or import between the 

 Unite'l . - ^ . : r'nv- r.^- .--.iintry. 



Sec. 4. Thar the < " 'mens of foods and drugs .shall be made in 



the Bureau of Chemistry : lent of Agriculture, or under the direction 



and supervision of such Bai r. u. : j purpose of determining from such examina- 

 tions Avh^iher such articles are adulrerared or misbranded within the meanins: of this 

 Acr. 



Tlie Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriciilture. by the 

 Act. is made the agency for examination of products, and the head of 

 that l?ranoli of the department, therefore, occupies a position of much 

 imprTtance. The point of safety seemed to be that it rested with the 

 St^LTotary <if Aericiihi ;r-, u^iutly with the Secretary of .the Treasury 

 and the Secretary . i ( . mmerce and Labor, to promulgate rules and 

 reuiilatioiis for carrying uiit the provisions of the Act. It was further 

 prcivided: 



Sec. 7. That for the purpose of this Act an article shall be deemed to be adulter- 

 ated, in the case of food, if it contain any added poisonous or other added 

 deleterious ingredient v^-hich may render such article in.iurious to health: prorided. 

 that when in the preparation of food products for shipment rhey are preserved by 

 any external application applied in such manner that the preservariv-e is necessarily 

 removed mechanically, or by maceration in water, or otherwise, and directions for 



