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/89

 tion of these bodies with diseased, unwholesome, unfit, and unsanitary meats cannot be controlled nor even positively affirmed after the meats are prepared and canned. Such adulterations are doubtless frequent and are the most objectionable. The only protection to the consumer is in a certificate of inspection before preparation and packing. The consumer, by refusing to purchase such comminuted meats in the absence of such a certificate, would soon compel the manufacturer to secure official inspection and certification of his products.

Adulteration with Starch.—One of the chief adulterants in sausages and prepared meats is starch. It has been said by some hygienists that starch is not an objectionable adulterant on hygienic grounds. This, however, is not strictly true. The injection of large quantities of starch into meat tends to unbalance a ration which is fixed with certain quantities of other food and tends to increase the proportion of starchy matter therein. There are many conditions of disordered digestion in which such increases of starch, unknown to the physician or patient or even known, are highly objectionable. Hence the use of starch as an adulterant in meat of this kind is reprehensible on hygienic grounds. The principal purpose for using starch is deception. Starch increases the bulk and weight of goods, and, in the process of cooking, prevents undue shrinkage. The consumer, therefore, thinks that he has secured a larger quantity and better quality of meat than he really has, and is, to this extent, defrauded and deceived.

Preservatives.—The preservatives which are principally used in meat are borax, boric acid, sulfite of soda, and benzoic acid. All of these preservatives have been shown, by researches in the Bureau of Chemistry, to be deleterious to health. They should be rigidly excluded from all meat as well as other food products.

Coloring Matter.—Dyes are frequently used for coloring sausage and other minced meats. All such dyeing materials are reprehensible, both on account of the danger to health and deception. Preserved meats gradually lose the natural red tint of the fresh meat, and to that extent the color is an index of the time during which they have been preserved. Inasmuch as consumers prefer fresh meats preserved as short a time as possible, they are deceived and to that extent injured by the use of dyestuffs which impart to preserved meats a fresh appearance.

Indirect Coloring Matter.—Certain chemicals, which of themselves have no color, serve to fix and hold, or even accentuate, the natural color of meat. The two principal chemicals used for this purpose are saltpeter and sulfite of soda. Saltpeter is used generally in preserved meats to retain and accentuate the red color thereof. Sulfite of soda is used principally on fresh meats, where it acts both as a preservative and as a retainer of color. Sprinkled over the freshly cut surface of fresh meat, sulfite of soda preserves the red tint, and the customer thinks it has just been cut. In this way he is deceived. Both of these sub-