Washington, its sights and insights [1909]Monroe, Harriet Earhart
History
Washington, its sights and insights [1909]
Monroe, Harriet Earhart
Washington (D.C.) -- Description and travel
For instance, renovated or "process" butter is now passing its ordeal.
"Process" butter means that a large quantity of butter has been sent to
a factory or elsewhere, and there worked together and colored to secure
uniformity of appearance, and then placed on the market. The government
requires that it shall be properly labeled. It is of less nutritive
value than either oleomargarine or butterine. A government leaflet gives
householders and merchants full directions for discovering the real
value of anything called butter. Every farmer should secure a copy of
the Agricultural Year-book.
I remember once, a number of years ago, at a table in London, discussing
with some merchants from South America the subject of buying their goods
in the United States instead of England.
One man from British Guiana said: "It is impossible to deal with the
United States; they have no food-test laws, and we buy one thing and get
another. Then take machinery and implements. The first three or four
purchases will be all right, after which they put off on us shelf-worn
goods which they could not sell at home."
When the government can put an official stamp on each article exported
it will be good for the permanence of our export trade.
No such general law now exists, and the best our government can do is to
certify that the goods comply with the standard of the country to which
they are to be sent. It is believed that many of the preservatives used
with food products are harmless to the human body, and a scientific test
of this was conducted in December, 1902. The Agricultural Department
called upon the young scientists of the colleges and universities to
assist in settling this question. A picked body of students were
supplied with the purest food to bring them to perfect condition, and
soups, meats, vegetables, jellies, etc., containing preservatives
claimed to be harmless will be given them, and as soon as a touch of
dyspepsia is manifest the test will be dropped. It was doubtful whether
football and baseball managers, not to mention such insignificant
factors as professors and mothers, would consent that their favorites
should be submitted to such experiments. But scientists are earnest
seekers for truth, and enough subjects were readily found to make the
trial.
It is not so much the making of impure foods that is objected to as it
is an effort to provide that goods shall be labeled for what they are—
that is, a can labeled raspberry jam shall not consist of gelatine with
a few raspberry seeds and juice used for coloring, but shall be the real
thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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