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Show HEALTH VALUE OF CANNED FOODS MANY housekeepers have a prejudice preju-dice against canned foods of any kind, largely on account of reports of cases of poisoning from canned goods, which have appeared in the newspapers. newspa-pers. Canned foods are a comparative recent re-cent development. L'p to the time of Napoleon, the only ways the human race had found to preserve food was by drving and by pickling. These two methods in various forms had been worked out by practically all races. Even primitive people had learned that meat, fruits, nnd grains, if dried in the sun, would keep indefinitely. But there were many practical difficulties diffi-culties using either of these methods on a large scale. In 1704, after the French revolution. France began organizing or-ganizing great armies to protect her territory. The problem of feeding these armies was a serious one. So Napoleon's commissary general offered a prize for the best method of preserving pre-serving food. A Frenchman, Nicholas Ar,rr worked on this problem for sixteen years, and in 1810 patented a process for sealing food in cans. But it was not until 1875 that Tas-teur Tas-teur proved putrefaction was due to a microscopic germ in the air, that it was killed by cooking, and that meat vegetables, fruits and other food, once'sterilized by heat, could he kept Indefinitely if sealed in air-tight cans. The growth of the canning business in the last fifty years has been phenomenal, phe-nomenal, in 1U23 over 3.0on.wm.000 cans of food were put up in the L'nit-r L'nit-r ed States alone. In the development of this business r manv mistakes were mode. Time was ...i.- mif rhp best meth- neccssarj iu ods. Today canned foods are among the cleanest, safest and most nutritious foods that can be secured, i spoiled cans are rare, and these i cms always can he detected by the ' swelled or bulged ends, the had odor mid the soft mushy appearance of the contents. ny canned fod which looks, smells ! or'ta-te suspi.-imis should be thrown .,, if in doubt, boil the contents I of the can b' fore using It. Even botulism poisoning, the most dangerous danger-ous pois. .. found in canned foo,.,. is rendered harrows by boiling for twenty twen-ty minutes. (limed foods have added enormously enormous-ly to tl.e wor.d's food supply. If selected se-lected and used with good Judgment. I thev are of great value in furnishing I an all-year-round supply of good food. |