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Show Delivers Address on Interesting Topic Before the Men's Club. DIVIDES HIS SUBJECT INTO TWO CLASSES Chemical Preservatives and Antiseptics, Ho Declares, Are Injurious. Before the Men's club of the First Congregational Con-gregational Church, State and City Chemist Chem-ist Herman HarmB gave an Interesting talk Monday night on "Food Adulterations" Adultera-tions" to an attentive and appreciative audience. Ho divided his subject Into two classes; those adulterations that aro Injurious -to health ana those that nro non-Injurious. IIo favored tho absolute abolition of thy former class and tho regulation of tho salo of the latter class by having the consumer fully Informed of the nnture of stuff ho is buying. An IntMrestlng fenturo of his talk was tho Illustration of the adulteratlona of many kinds that ho hns found In an olllclal capacity ca-pacity in tho city by exhibiting snmplos that linvo been encountered and comparing compar-ing tho spurious with the genuine articles. Thopo exhibits Indued coloring matter, preservatives and substitutions. Of Great Import to Public. Uo stated thnt pure food Is a matter of great Import to public health and that thu money spent for adulterated food products amounts to millions of dollars yearly. That tho American people aro awakening to tho Importanco and Immensity Im-mensity of tho subject to tho extent that nearly every Stato In tho Union has enacted en-acted laws regulating tho salo of adulterated adul-terated foods. In I'tah the onico of Dairy and Food Commissioner was created cre-ated in 1S&9 and four years later tho ollleo of Stato Chemist was added. The Utah statutes deflnu the term food as "any article ined by man as food, including confectionery, llavorlng extracts, drink or condiment, whethor mixed or compound." Tho duties of these olllccs Is to suppress and prevent tho sale of adulterated and poisonous foods. What Is Adulterated FoodP A food, he said. Is deemed to be adulterated adul-terated when another substanco hns been wholly or partly substituted for It; when a valuable constituent has been wholly or partially extracted; whon an Imitation Is sold for tho genulno; when It Is colored, col-ored, mixed or powdered whereby Inferiority In-feriority Is concealed, or when It contains any added poisonous Ingredients, Is decayed, de-cayed, filthy, decomposed or labolcd so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser. Preservatives and Antiseptics. Chemical preservatives and antiseptics, ho said, aro Injurious. Preservatives prevent pre-vent fermentation and as digestion Is a process of fermentation. It follows that preservatives Is Injurious to tho system. Preservatives In milk should bo condemned con-demned In tho sevorost measures, as It Is a universal food and tho only food consumed by children nnd Invnllds whoso vitality and dlgestlvo organs uhould not bo further overburdened to overconpjj tho preservative effects of added antiseptics. Hides Odor and Filth. Tho preservative also, ho said, often becomes be-comes a substitute for cleanliness nnd 6anltnry precaution, becauso the antiseptic antisep-tic removes or hides for some tlmo the ordor caused by filth, derived from bad air. food, water and many other sources. Preservatives, ho said, are found in a great variety of foods, such as milk, cream, butler, catsup, fish. Jams preserves, pre-serves, meats, oysters, canned goods, wines, cider, grape Juice, beer tind everything every-thing liable to spoil. As to Aniline Dyes. Anlllno dyes aro derived from coal tar and are found in from 1TCO to 1M0 varieties vari-eties In various stages of their preparation prepara-tion arBcnlc. zinc ami sulphuric acid aro employed. Some of these dyes aro harmless harm-less and others are Injurious. He exhibited exhib-ited samples of French peas colorcel with cepper lb the form of blue stono. "Wood Alcohol Poisonous. He devoted considerable attention to tho subject of wood alcohol, which Is extremely ex-tremely poisonous, but Is rrade to imitate grain alcohol so closely that the difference differ-ence cannot be detected by the senses. Substitute for Sugar. Saccharine was also explained as a recent re-cent product which fills tho doublo purpose pur-pose of a food preservative and a substl-tuto substl-tuto for sugar. In sweetening power It Is KX times greater than sugar, but lacks nutritive qualities and possesses absolutely abso-lutely no food value. Non-Injurious Articles Frauds. As to tho non-Injurious articles, he classified them a frauds or sophisticates. sophistica-tes. They always eJhcapon or lower tho quality of goods or are sold In place of other articles. They simply rob the consumer, con-sumer, and the loss falls most heavily upon tho uneducated and poorer class, who by necessity are compelled to patronize cheop stores. However, to a certain extent tho fraud Is practiced In all classes of foods. Other Counterfeits. Cream Is deprived of Its butter fat and trxn thickened and colored. Oleomargarine Oleomarga-rine Is another counterfeit. Renovated butter ho characterized as a fraud of tho worst character, while tho public had been Imposeel upon bv butter containing a largo porcentage of water, with great profit to the Impostors. Neither Lemon Nor Vanilla, He exhibited lemon and vanilla extracts that contained absolutely none of the articles they purported to bo. Jellies, Jams and p-cscrves nro often found that contain not a particle of fruit, but are inado of gelatine or starch paste. Adulteration of Spices. In tho adulteration of spices tho greatest great-est latitude has been used, as In them arc found wheat, corn starch, flour, greiund olive stones, date pits, sund, brick tlt'St, sawdust, peanut shells, comment, cracker crumb:; and almond and cocoanut shells. As to Wholesale Poisoning. Ills experience had been, he said, that reports of wholesale poisoning from this class of food had been greatly exaggerated. exag-gerated. He had always, he said, contended con-tended to let the lobel toll nnd Inform tho consumer what the article' ho purchases contains, whether it be a preservative, coloring or other substance. Most of Diet Pure. An honest article Invites the searchlight of truth, while an artlclo sailing under false colors states as little as possible regarding re-garding ltd composition. A largo part of our diet, he said, Is Invariably pure, and In Utah the condition of foods Is generally general-ly quite satisfactory. |