The Pure Food Label by L. A. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 30, 1914

The Pure Food Label

By L. A. H.

THE label "Guaranteed under the National Food and Drugs Act, June 30, 1906, Serial No. —," appearing on packages, does not always mean as much as may be intended by those using the label, nor as may be thought by those who use the goods.

Some people believe that this label is a guaranty by the government that the article sold under it is pure. Such is not the case. The generally accepted supposition that the label insures the purity of the goods is based upon what ought to be the fact, but which in truth proves not to be. In its workings, the guaranty is only a protection for the retailer in case of prosecution, the manufacturer or packer thereby guaranteeing to bear all liabilities of prosecution.

The activities of the national authorities in the enforcement of the Pure Food Law are confined to food products that enter into interstate commerce that are shipped from one State to another. Foods produced and consumed within a State are not subject to government inspection or analysis.

The last report of the Bureau of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture shows the number of cases passed upon as violations of the Pure Food Law to have reached 2,829. This would indicate that the law has not yet put an end to attempts to defraud.

Some of the violations are about as gross as any that have ever occurred, showing the imperative need of strict pure food regulations. They cover practically all kinds of food products subject to adulteration. We mention a few of them.

A brand of olive oil was labeled "Extra Fine Olive Oil—Lucca, Italy. Olio d'Oliva Torricelli Brand—Marca Depositata." Analysis showed the product to be chiefly cottonseed oil.

A number of confectionery products under attractive names, appealing especially to children, are alleged to be adulterated because containing arsenic in quantities sufficient to be deleterious to health. In a number of instances candy is coated with shellac. Frequently the word maple is used in connection with the name, whereas the product may contain no maple whatever.

WASHINGTON (D. C.) SANITARIUM CITY HOSPITAL

A product labeled "Delight Brand for Soup Tomato Pulp Made From Clippings and Trimmings" was found to consist in whole or in part of a filthy and decomposing vegetable substance.

Several cases of adulteration and misbranding of evaporated and condensed milk are given, in which it is alleged the milk is below required standard, notwithstanding the guaranty label.

Frozen, dried, evaporated, and desiccated eggs in a number of instances were found to be wholly or in part filthy, putrid, and decomposed.

Tomato sauce, catchup, pulp, conserve, and paste are found in many instances to be so filthy with bacteria that they are condemned as unfit for food or as an ingredient of food.

Several brands of molasses, maple sirup, sorghum sirups, and drips, with fancy names and labels, are found under false names and descriptions.

Flavoring extracts and essential oils of a number of brands are found to be adulterated and misbranded, being colored with coal-tar dyes, and containing little or no true flavoring material.

A number of so-called remedies for various ailments fall under the ban of condemnation in that they are not what they are said to be, and cannot do what they claim to do.

Macaroni labeled to indicate that the product is of foreign manufacture, made of the highest grade of gluten flour, and with eggs, by patented hygienic mechanical method, is found to be a domestic product made of ordinary wheat flour and artificially colored with a yellow coal-tar dye so as to resemble the appearance of egg, but containing practically no egg.

Several brands of "Lithia Water" and other mineral waters are found misbranded, their labels giving analyses showing valuable constituents, the number of which is exceeded by the list of diseases for which the water is recommended.

A so-called gelatin shipped to a manufacturer supposed to make a high grade ice cream is found to be hide glue.

Some brands of canned peas represented as being early June or green peas are found to be matured peas soaked. The word soaked was on the label in inconspicuous letters. A similar misrepresentation is found with several brands of canned Lima beans.

A widely advertised pepsin chewing gum, with the statements that it is "a delicious remedy for all forms of indigestion" and that each tablet contains sufficient pure pepsin to digest two thousand grams of food, is found by analysis to contain practically no pepsin. When three tablets of the gum, which, according to the statement of the manufacturer, should contain about one-tenth gram of pepsin, were finely divided and substituted for the one-tenth gram of pepsin as per the U. S. P. assay for pepsin, the gum solution showed no effect whatever upon the egg albumen, while the pure pepsin dissolved the albumen almost completely.

Several brands of "unfermented grape juice" fail to meet their claims, in that, for one thing, they are fermented.

So-called temperance beers and temperance tonics come under the charge of misbranding simply because they are not temperance beers or temperance tonics.

A bottled water claiming medicinal properties of unusual value, with a label giving an almost exhaustless list of diseases that may be cured by the use of the water, was alleged to be adulterated "for the reason that the product contained an added deleterious ingredient which may render it injurious to health, to wit, excremental material of animal origin, and further in that it consisted of filthy, decomposed, and putrid animal substances."

Several brands of preserves, jams, and jellies were found to be falsely labeled, some containing more benzoate of soda than the label set forth, and some containing phosphoric acid in excess of the amount declared on the label. Others contained more glucose than the amount stated.

Contrary to the statements found on

the package of a malt breakfast food, it was found that the ingredients contained no barley, was not rich in malt, did not consist of "the choicest whole wheat, scientifically combined with the best barley and malt," and did not possess "all the virtues of malt."

Some hair tonics were found to be misbranded for the reason that the product did not do what the label said it would do.

A "Walnut Oil" hair color restorer said to be "Nature's Own Remedy, Simplest and Best on Earth. . . . Price, One Dollar. The Only Hair Dye on Earth Made From Pure Vegetables and Oils. . . . A Strictly Vegetable Remedy," was found misbranded because in truth and in fact it contained no walnut oil and was not made from vegetables and oils.

Several instances of adulteration of ice cream are given, with findings in some cases of conditions that rendered the product unwholesome because of the large number of bacteria. Some ice cream cones are also found to be misrepresented, containing boric acid, and being artificially colored.

Various beauty preparations, such as lotions and freckle ointments, come under the list of condemnation for claiming to contain nothing harmful, or to be absolutely harmless, whereas they are harmful.

Several so-called drug habit cures fall under condemnation in that their claims are false and misleading, the articles containing alcohol and morphine in different quantities or proportions than stated on the labels.

Shredded coconut so rancid as to be unfit for food finds condemnation.

A shipment of twenty-six tierces of butter was condemned, some of it being so rancid that the decision was rendered that it be marked "Moldy grease not to be used for food purposes."

In a number of cases rice was found mislabeled, the product being an inferior one and coated with glucose and talc. One brand labeled "Fancy Head Rice" consisted almost entirely of broken rice usually classed as about number two screenings.

A number of convictions were for short weight, the difference in some instances being ten per cent or more between the actual contents of the package and what was stated on the label.

This all goes to show that the individual purchaser of goods must still be guarded in his selections. Care on the part of consumers to ascertain what goods are really reliable and to purchase only such will perhaps do most toward bringing about the needed reform.

L. A. H.