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/92

 but that is probably due to the fact that horses are not raised for food purposes and are usually not used for such until they are worn out in domestic service. There are many sentimental and often religious objections to the use of horse meat, but experience has shown that it is wholesome and nutritious. Horse meat is characteristic in containing more natural sugar, commonly known as glycogen, than any of the other ordinary meats used for human consumption. It approaches in its content of sugar some of the shell-fish flesh, such as that of the lobster. Practically all of the horse meat which is prepared in this country is exported to Europe. There are cases, however, on record of the sale of horse flesh to domestic consumers. Especially could it be used in this way in the form of sausage or other finely comminuted products without much danger of detection.

Composition of Horse Meat.—A number of samples of horse meat of undoubted origin and wholesomeness have been examined in the Bureau of Chemistry and the data tabulated. The average composition of sixteen samples of horse meat, representing different parts of the carcass, is shown in the following table:

Water,                           69.81 percent Water in fat-free substance,     76.91 " Fat,                               9.61 " Protein,                         19.47 "    Protein insoluble in water,   14.83 " Gelatinous protein,           1.23 " Meat bases,                        1.70 " Glycogen,                         1.82 " Ash,                               1.01 "

Composition of Dry Material.—

Protein,         67.98 percent Fat,             27.71 " Ash,               3.18 " Undetermined,     1.13 "

The high percentage of glycogen in horse meat is one of the safest methods of determining its character when comminuted or cut up into pieces so small as not to be identified by the usual anatomical characteristics. Very few other kinds of edible flesh contain as much as one percent of glycogen. Glycogen is a transitory product which tends naturally to be broken up into other substances, and, hence, even in horse meat after slaughter, it may rapidly disappear and thus, unless the meat is examined at once, very little glycogen may be found in it. A safer test for horse meat is in the nature of the fat therein. This fat does not tend to change as the glycogen does, and, therefore, in a pure preparation of horse meat even in a finely comminuted state the separation and examination of the fat will lead to a determination of the character of meat employed. The fats of horse meat have a lower melting point,