PRESERVED FOODS AND ADULTERATIONS.
THE Senate Pure Food Commission has been sitting in Chicago recently, and listening to testimony relative to the adulteration of foods. Among the "preservatives" used in the meat and milk business are "freezine," "preservalene," "freeze'em," "rosaline," "laktone," etc. Among those who testified was Prof. A. S. Mitchell, analytical chemist of Wisconsin Dairy and Food Commission. He is reported by the Omaha Herald of May 11, to have said:— "The use of antiseptics as preservatives," said Professor Mitchell, "has become alarmingly great. They are used as colorings and to stop the development of germs in dairy products; also in chopped meats, bulk oysters, fish, hams, and possibly corned beefs. "Professor Mitchell made the sworn statement that nearly every butcher in Illinois used preserving liquids on scraps of meat which they laid aside for the manufacture of hamburger steak and other alleged delicacies. "The chemist first told of a liquid known as 'freezine.' Professor Mitchell said that the stuff had been used extensively by farmers to keep milk; and butter, it being the custom to mix it with the former in small quantities, and pour it into vats for the preservation of butter. "This 'freezine' I have found to be nothing less than almost pure formic aldehyd," narrated the expert. "This is a chemical that acts disastrously upon the tissue of the stomach, and I can only surmise the results when milk diluted with it is used constantly by a family. Where butter is placed in vats filled with this stuff the precious commodity takes up no small part of the liquid, with a result that can only be conjectured." "The professor proceeded to tell of his experiments with a fluid sold extensively to butchers for the purpose of making their hamburger steaks last and keep up a healthy appearance. "This liquid contains in great per cent. what is known as sulphide of soda with a complement of coloring matter," he continued. "It is styled an antiseptic, and, in certain respects, is. This must be borne in mind, however, that where fermentation and waste are arrested the digestive properties are consequently destroyed." "Dr. Wiley, the government expert who examined the antiseptic without going on the stand, said he identified it as practically the same chemical which was used during his experience at medical colleges to preserve cadavers, and was now occasionally put to service in disinfecting houses where small-pox patients resided. "The testimony early in the day assumed the form of a debate as to whether or not the use of alum in the manufacture of baking-powder is injurious to the public health. "George W. Rew, a chemist, stated that the injuries characteristic of alum was destroyed in the process of baking. "Prof. C. N. Shallberg, former editor of the Western Druggist, and Professor Mitchell combatted this theory, and expressed the opinion that alum should not be used as an ingredient unless the public was made aware of the fact by labels on the cans. The common basis of jellies manufactured nowadays, according to several witnesses, are the core and parings of apples, utilized after they had been evaporated. This substance it was claimed, is mixed with glucose in large quantities, with sugar in small quantities, and then colored and flavored to suit the outside design on the package."