12 BULLETIN 196, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
THE LABEL. 
The label should tell the truth in terms which are direct and easily understood. | 
It should give the name of the article, the grade, by whom packed and where packed, 
or the name of the distributor. Neither the names nor the illustrations used should 
be misleading. A picture of green peas in pods in clear relief and subdued type stat- 
ing that the contents are soaked is hardly appropriate. If given a geographical name © 
it must be the true one. Corn grown in Jowa is not Maine corn though obtained from 
Maine seed. The use of such terms as ‘‘ Maine style” for cream corn is in reality only 
an attempt to circumvent the intent of a true label. 
There are no fixed standards for canned goods, though the canner and the trade 
do recognize and describe certain qualities in jobbing, and prices are made accord- 
ingly. The consumer has not been educated to know these differences. The labels | 
usually carry descriptive terms implying superlative quality, as extra select, extra 
choice, extra fancy, select, choice, fancy, extra standard, and, less commonly, stand- 
ard. There are too many designations for the same product, and, furthermore, Mr. 
A’s fancy may not be the same as Mr. B’s. The grade may not be the same in two 
consecutive seasons, owing to drought, excess of rain, intense heat, or other cause; 
neither may it mean the same in different sections of the country in a normal year. 
In other words, at the present time the grade does not have a fixed character. 
Again, when the sirup is one of the factors in grading a product, that fact should 
be given, though it is not required. A consumer can not go to the grocery and buy 
peaches in a 40°, 30°, or 20° sirup, though the packers use care in preparing such 
sirups to use for their different grades. Such designations as heavy, medium, and 
light sirup are also inadequate. A heavy sirup may mean anything between 35° and 
60°, a medium between 20° and 45°, and a light between 10° and 30°, depending on 
who uses it. These variations are too wide to be carried under such elastic terms. 
There is no doubt that some fruit packed in light or 20° sirup is just as good as that 
put up in medium or 30° sirup, but there can be no harm done by giving the exact 
facts. On general principles, if it is worth while for the packer to select his stock 
carefully and put up different grades, the consumer should know how to select them. 
A can of any food should be as full as it can reasonably be packed and processed 
without injuring either the quality or appearance of the product. There is such a 
thing as overfilling as well as underfilling, and one is as much a fault as the other. 
All foods packed in a liquid or semiliquid condition, or as solids surrounded by liquid, 
should fill to within one-half inch of the top, and when free liquid is present it should 
cover the solids. Corn or peas an inch below the top would be a slack fill, even though 
covered with liquid. The fruits present a more perplexing problem, depending 
upon the size of the pieces and the degree to which they shrink in the sirup. The 
very choice large peaches, having only 5 or 6 pieces to the can, will weigh only 18 or 
19 ounces and be as full as they can be sealed. A slightly smaller size, of 7 to 9 pieces 
to the can, will weigh 20 ounces, and for more than 10 pieces the weight will be 
from 21 to 22 ounces. After they have been cooked in the sirup the pieces will soften, 
the weight will change, and the fill will not be the same, though in all the amount 
was as much as could be sealed. If the cans be judged upon weight of the solids 
alone, the highest grade would be short weight; the quality must also be considered. 
The presence of only 18 or 19 ounces of low-grade peaches would be manifestly slack 
filled. Soft berries, like strawberries and raspberries, if filled as full as the can will 
hold and sirup or water added, will appear only one-third to one-half full of solids upon 
opening and considerable variation will occur, depending upon their condition. 
Some foods can be packed so as to give a fairly uniform net weight upon opening, but 
