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/90

 stances are highly objectionable not only on account of deception but on account of being injurious to health. In the case of saltpeter, the general opinion concerning its therapeutic action is that it is not a proper substance to mix with foods. It would be highly desirable on the part of the packer, if he deemed it necessary to use bodies of this kind, to plainly state upon each package the character and quantity of preservatives and coloring matter employed. The consumer is then left to judge for himself whether or not he desires to eat these bodies.

The principal objection to notifications of this kind is that the consumer, not being an expert as a rule, cannot form any intelligent opinion respecting the desirability of these substances in food. He is more apt to be guided by common practice in this matter and by his own opinion than by any general principles of chemistry and hygiene.

Potted Tongue.—The term "potted tongue" may apply equally to tongue of a single character, such as beef, lamb, pork, or swine, or the mixture thereof. The examinations which have been made of the potted tongues of commerce do not indicate whether they are of a single character or whether the tongues are derived from a variety of sources. The mean composition of twenty-one samples bought in the open market, as found in the Bureau of Chemistry, is given in the following table:

Water,                               52.50 percent Water in the fat-free substance,     67.67   " Fat,                                  22.99   " Protein,                             17.80   " Meat bases,                             .75   " Total ash,                            5.46   "

Adulteration of Potted Tongue.—In the samples examined above starch was found in four cases, the largest amount being 11.6 percent. Saltpeter was found in eighteen cases, the largest amount being .06 percent. Tin was present in thirteen cases and zinc in eight cases. Boric acid was found in fourteen cases.

From the above it is evident that the principal adulterations in potted tongue, aside from the use of meats which are not tongue, and which chemical analysis cannot disclose, are the addition of starch, saltpeter, tin, and zinc, the two latter derived either from the solder or from the can in which the goods are placed.

Canned Poultry.—Other fresh meats, in addition to beef and pork, are canned in a fresh state. In the case of poultry the fowls are dressed and drawn and the whole carcass boiled until the meat is sufficiently cooked to facilitate the separation from the bones. The bones are then removed and the meat is canned and sterilized by practically the same method as practiced with canned beef. Game and wild fowl meats are also subjected to the same process of canning as the domesticated chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, etc. In general it may be said that there are no differences in the processes