Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/71

 substances than those mentioned above are necessary to the proper curing of meat, but convenience of application and certain other considerations have led packers of meats, when not prevented by law, to abandon the old methods to a certain extent and substitute what is known as the quick-aging process described below.

Preservation by Means of Non-condimental Chemical Preservatives.—The use of non-condimental chemicals in the preservation of meat is practically an industry of the last quarter of a century. Up to that time the use of non-condimental chemicals was practically unknown in the meat industry. The chemicals employed are those known as germicides. In the quantities used they neither impart a taste nor odor to a preserved meat, but by their germicidal properties prevent the development of organic ferments and thus make the preservation of meat far more certain and very much less expensive. By the use of some chemicals the salting, sugaring, and smoking of preserved meats may be done with very much less care, in a very much shorter time, and at a very greatly reduced expense. For this reason the practice has gained a great vogue, not as a means of benefiting the consumers, but rather as a means of enriching the packer and dealer. Chemical preservatives are also highly objectionable because they keep meats apparently fresh, while in reality changes of the most dangerous character may be going on. They thus prevent the display of the red light danger signal.

Preservatives Used.—The principal chemical preservatives used in the curing of meats are borax and boric acid and sulfite of soda. There are many other chemical preservatives which have been employed, but these are by far the most useful, the most certain, and the most widely employed. Borax and boric acid, of the two classes, are by far the more common. Sulfite of soda is used more as a preservative of color, and is probably found more frequently on fresh than on preserved meats. Borax has the property of paralyzing fermentative action and thus securing immunity from decay. Its use, however, tends to diminish the palatability of the meat because of its restraining influence upon the condimental method of preservation described above. The meats are more quickly preserved, require less condimental substances, and the borax probably inhibits, to a certain degree, the enzymic action of a favorable kind, described above.

The use of any kind of a chemical preserving agent on meat is most reprehensible, no matter what they may be. Unfortunately, experts differ respecting the influence of these chemical preservatives upon health. The users of chemical preservatives have employed experts of known fame and distinction to testify in favor of these products, while the consumer, perhaps, is not able to go to the expense of securing expert testimony, and, therefore, as respects numbers of witnesses, at least, chemical preservatives have an advantage. In a case of this kind the accused must be considered guilty until proven in-