FOODS AND FOOD CONTROL.

I.-Legislation during the year ended July 1, 1903.

FEDERAL LAWS.

The following excerpt from the act making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture (Public-No. 158), approved March 3, 1903, gives the provisions of the law authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the adulteration of foods and drugs, to supervise the importation of food products from foreign countries, to inspect food products intended for exportation to countries requiring physical or chemical inspection of foods entering their ports, and to fix standards of purity for foods:

To investigate the adulteration of foods, drugs, and liquors, when deemed by the Secretary of Agriculture advisable; and the Secretary of Agriculture, whenever he has reason to believe that articles are being imported from foreign countries which by reason of such adulteration are dangerous to the health of the people of the United States, or which are forbidden to be sold or restricted in sale in the countries in which they are made or from which they are exported, or which shall be falsely labeled in any respect in regard to the place of manufacture or the contents of the package, shall make a request upon the Secretary of the Treasury for samples from original packages of such articles for inspection and analysis; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to open such original packages and deliver specimens to the Secretary of Agriculture for the purpose mentioned, giving notice to the owner or consignee of such articles, who may be present and have the right to introduce testimony; and the Secretary of the Treasury shall refuse delivery to the consignee of any such goods which the Secretary of Agriculture reports to him have been inspected and analyzed and found to be dangerous to health, or which are forbidden to be sold or restricted in sale in the countries in which they are made or from which they are exported, or which shall be falsely labeled in any respect in regard to the place of manufacture or the contents of the package.

To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the character of food preservatives, coloring matters, and other substances added to foods, to determine their relation to digestion and to health, and to establish the principles which should guide their use; to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the character of the chemical and physical tests which are applied to American food products in foreign countries, and to inspect before shipment, when desired by the shippers or owners of these food products, American food products intended for countries where chemical and physical tests are required before said food products are allowed to be sold in the countries mentioned, and for all necessary expenses connected with such inspection and studies of methods of analysis in foreign countries; to enable the Sec

retary of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, and such other experts as he may deem necessary, to establish standards of purity for food products and to determine what are regarded as adulterations therein, for the guidance of the officials of the various States and of the courts of justice.

STANDARDS OF PURITY FOR FOOD PRODUCTS.

Whereas the Congress of the United States, by an act approved June 3, 1902, authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to establish standards of purity for food products; and

Whereas he was empowered by this act to consult with the committee on food standards of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists and other experts in determining these standards; and

Whereas he has, in accordance with the provisions of the act, availed himself of the counsel and advice of these experts and of the trade interests touching the products for which standards have been determined and has reached certain conclusions based on the general principles of examination and conduct hereinafter mentioned;

Therefore, I, James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, do hereby proclaim and establish the following standards for purity of food products, together with their precedent definitions, as the official standards of these food products for the United States of America.

WASHINGTON, D. C., November 20, 1903.

JAMES WILSON.

PRINCIPLES ON WHICH THE DEFINITIONS AND STANDARDS ARE BASED.

The general considerations which have guided the committee in preparing the definitions and standards for food products are the following:

1. The main classes of food articles are defined before the subordinate classes are considered.

2. The names of the various substances for which standards are proposed are defined.

3. The definitions are so framed as to exclude from the articles defined substances not included in the definitions.

4. The definitions include, where possible, those qualities which make the articles described wholesome for human food.

5. A term defined in any of the several schedules has the same meaning wherever else it is used in this report.

6. The names of food products herein defined usually agree with existing American trade or manufacturing usage, but where such usage is not clearly established, or where trade names confuse two or more articles for which specific designations are desirable, preference is given to one of the several trade names applied

7. Standards are based upon data representing materials produced under American conditions and manufactured by American processes or representing such varieties of foreign articles as are chiefly imported for American use.

8. The standards fixed are such that a departure of the articles to which they apply above the maximum or below the minimum limit prescribed is evidence that such articles are of inferior or abnormal quality.

9. The limits fixed as standard are not necessarily the extremes authentically recorded for the article in question, because such extremes are commonly due to abnormal conditions of production and are usually accompanied by marks of inferiority or abnormality readily perceived by the producer or manufacturer.

FOOD DEFINITIONS AND STANDARDS.

I. ANIMAL PRODUCTS.

A. MEATS AND THE PRINCIPAL MEAT PRODUCTS.

a. MEATS.

Definitions.

1. Meat is any sound, dressed, and properly prepared edible part of animals in good health at the time of slaughter. The term "animals,” as herein used, includes not only mammals, but fish, fowl, crustaceans, mollusks, and all other animals used as food.

2. Fresh meat is meat from animals recently slaughtered or preserved only by refrigeration.

3. Salted, pickled, and smoked meats are unmixed meats preserved by salt, sugar, vinegar, spices, or smoke, singly or in combination, whether in bulk or in packages.

Standard.

Standard meat, fresh meat, and salted, pickled, and smoked meats are such as conform respectively to the foregoing definitions.

b. MANUFACTURED MEATS.

Definition.

1. Manufactured meats are meats not included in definitions 2 and 3, whether simple or mixed, whole or comminuted, in bulk or packages, with or without the addition of salt, sugar, vinegar, spices, smoke, oils, or rendered fat.

Standard.

Standard manufactured meats conform to the foregoing definition. If they bear names descriptive of composition, they correspond thereto, and when bearing such descriptive names, if force or flavoring meats are used, the kind and quantity thereof are made known.

C. MEAT EXTRACTS, MEAT PEPTONES, ETC.

(Schedule in preparation.)

d. LARD.

Definitions.

1. Lard is the rendered fresh fat from slaughtered, healthy hogs.

2. Leaf lard is the lard rendered at moderately high temperatures from the internal fat of the abdomen of the hog, excluding that adherent to the intestines.

Standard.

Standard lard and standard leaf lard are lard and leaf lard respectively free from rancidity, containing not more than one (1) per cent of substances, other than fatty acids, not fat, necessarily incorporated therewith in the process of rendering, and standard leaf lard has an iodine number not greater than sixty (60).

Definition.

3. Neutral lard is lard rendered at low temperatures.

B. MILK AND ITS PRODUCTS.

a. MILKS.

Definition.

1. Milk (whole milk) is the lacteal secretion obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows, properly fed and kept, excluding that obtained within fifteen days before and five days after calving.

Standard.

Standard milk is milk containing not less than twelve (12) per cent of total solids and not less than eight and one-half (8.5) per cent of solids not fat, nor less than three and one-quarter (3.25) per cent of milk fat.

Definitions.

2. Blended milk is milk modified in its composition so as to have a definite and stated percentage of one or more of its constituents.

3. Skim milk is milk from which a part or all of the cream has been removed.

Standard.

Standard skim milk is skim milk containing not less than nine and one-quarter (9.25) per cent of milk solids.

Definitions.

4. Buttermilk is the product that remains when butter is removed from milk or cream in the process of churning.

5. Pasteurized milk is standard milk that has been heated below boiling but sufficiently to kill most of the active organisms present and immediately cooled to fifty degrees (50°) Fahr. or lower to retard the development of their spores.

6. Sterilized milk is standard milk that has been heated at the temperature of boiling water or higher for a length of time sufficient to kill all organisms present.

7. Condensed milk is milk from which a considerable portion of water has been evaporated.

8. Sweetened condensed milk is milk from which a considerable portion of water has been evaporated and to which sugar (sucrose) has been added.

Standard.

Standard condensed milk and standard sweetened condensed milk are condensed milk and sweetened condensed milk, respectively, containing not less than twenty-eight (28) per cent of milk solids, of which not less than one-fourth is milk fat.

Definition.

9. Condensed skim milk is skim milk from which a considerable portion of water has been evaporated.

b. MILK FAT OR BUTTER FAT.

Definition.

1. Milk fat or butter fat is the fat of milk.

1

Standard.

Standard milk fat or butter fat has a Reichert-Meissl number not less than twentyfour (24) and a specific gravity not less than 0.905 (40° C. / 40° C.).

C. CREAM.

Definition.

1. Cream is that portion of milk, rich in butter fat, which rises to the surface of milk on standing, or is separated from it by centrifugal force.

Standard.

Standard cream is cream containing not less than eighteen (18) per cent of milk fat. 2. Evaporated cream is cream from which a considerable portion of water has been evaporated.

d. BUTTER.
Definition.

1. Butter is the product obtained by gathering in any manner the fat of fresh or ripened milk or cream into a mass, which also contains a small portion of the other milk constituents, with or without salt. By acts of Congress approved August 2d, 1886, and May 9th, 1902, butter may also contain additional coloring matter.

Standard.

Standard butter is butter containing not less than eighty-two and five-tenths (82.5) per cent of butter fat.

Definition.

2. Renovated or process butter is the product obtained by melting butter and reworking, without the addition or use of chemicals or any substances except milk, cream, or salt.

Standard.

Standard renovated or process butter is renovated or process butter containing not more than sixteen (16) per cent of water and at least eighty-two and five-tenths (82.5) per cent of butter fat.

e. CHEESE.

Definitions.

1. Cheese is the solid and ripened product obtained by coagulating the casein of milk by means of rennet or acids, with or without the addition of ripening ferments and seasoning. By act of Congress, approved June 6, 1896, cheese may also contain additional coloring matter.

2. Whole milk or full cream cheese is cheese made from milk from which no portion of the fat has been removed.

3. Skim-milk cheese is cheese made from milk from which any portion of the fat has been removed.

4. Cream cheese is cheese made from milk and cream, or milk containing not less than six (6) per cent of fat.

Standard.

Standard whole-milk cheese or full-cream cheese is whole-milk or full-cream cheese containing in the water-free substance, not less than fifty (50) per cent of butter fat.