IArDC;STIIIAL A.VD ENGIiVEERIiVG CHh’JNSTRY ..
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Val. 20, No. 12
Chemistry and Food Regulation P. B. Dunbar’ ~krx,. DXVO. A N D I N S E C T I C I I ~A U ~ N I S T ~ ~ ~I:.T S I .~ D Nr,~ h a r x n s rov AGKICCLTI-RE, U ~ s i m c ~ i o D. r , C.
WE relation of food law enforcemetit to cheiiiistry iri the food industries is direct and important. While the primary purpose of t,liis symposium is to empliayize the importance of chemistry in the control and development of food mannfacturing processea, it is entirely pertinent to include some discussion of the function which chemistry plays in the detection of sophistication in food products, t o the eud that adulterated or misbranded prodricts may be banned from tlre market in the interest of the consiiiirer and of the honed manufacturer. It is undoubtedly a fact that ethical elemneirts of tlre food industry viewed the enactment of the Federal Food and 1)rttgs Act more tltan a score of years ago with a coiisiderable degree of alarm, anticipating governmerital interference of an intolerable cbaract.er in business. It is equwlly true today, 1 think, that there are few food industries, if any, which would. not earnestly oppose the abrogation of the law or its amendment in any fashion that would nullify it.s important pmvisious. That this is true is well demonstrated hy the instantstieous response of the industries in opposition t,o moves vhioh have been made front time to time during the last fev years to weaken the law by congressional amendment. The niamifacturer of t.oday will emphatically assert that a fair m d uniform enforoement of statutes, both federal aiid state, cont,rolliiig the purity of our food supply is an important factor in businns success, in that it creates in tire mind of t.he con.sumer a confidence in products subject to the law and ohvintes the unfair oomp3ition created by traffic i n adulterated and misbranded articles. Clremistry iii the broadest sense, niid in this must be iiiduded microscopy and bacteriology, is tlie fotmdat.ion on which effect,i\-e food law enforcement is based. The cheniist’s course in tlic detection of food adulteration is frequently RII uncharted one, just as is tlie case io the maniifactnrin~ phases of the food industry. It has Been frequently stated tbat the food adillterntor is inimiably one jump ahead nf the enforcing agency, which is merely an apt way of stating that methods for tlie detection of adulterntion a i d its estnhlishment under the rules of evidence must usually lw Trorked out by the chemist after an actiial violat,ion linc occurred. The Federal Food and Drugs Act \vas passed on June 30, 1906. At that time few textbooks on food analysis applicable t,o American products were available to the chemist and these for the most part were limited in scope and scanty in aiitlientic dala aiid contained many untried and faulty methods of :rualysis. Outstanding among Antericati soiirces of information were tlie various bulletins of the Bureau of Chemistry issued by Docii ir W h y and his co-workers in the years of prepnrat.ion preceding the enactment of the Food and Drugs Act, tlie bulletins of t,he Department of Agricuiture containing ttic methods of aiialysis adopted by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, and tile classical work of Leach on food adulteration and analysis, the later editioiis of wliich remain today an a,uthoritati.tivewide to the food chemist. Promptly, with the enactment of the federal statute and similar state lam, new problems confronted the chemist in the way of detect.ing new forms of food adulteration. Old methods were shown to be unsatisfactory and ohsoleta, so that during the last t,wenty-two years there has been a continntal a g
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Asrislrnt Chief, F a d , Dru%.and Insecticide Administration.
peal to t,lie genius of t,he food chemist, both st&e and federal, for the developnient and testing of methods which can be relied upon t o furnish evidence of a character conclusive to court and jury in those cases wliere adiilterations are encountered a,nd legal actions iiistit,uted. The appeal has been no lens urgent to tlte commercial food chemist interest,ed in maintaining t.he quality of his output and prot,oct,ingit against the compet,ition of adult,erated articles. Mat,erial progress has been made during the last t,wo decades, but much work ol 8 vititl kind remains t o be done. More and more lras it hcoine evident that the iiceds of food regalatory work demand meti of the most comprehensive training. That tlte value of such IIICII has bcrn recognized by the food industries is evidenced hy t,he f& that the regulatory forces a.re heitig cnntimially depleted liy the deiiiands of the manufactiirm. Grosser Forms of Food Adulteration Eliminated i n general it rlillst be said that i h e grosser forms of food adulteration \yere easily detected and checked very shortly after the enacdrneiit of tlrc l a w intended for their correction. Ordinarily it ia 110 trick for t,liefood chemist t,o detect and idcntify gross adultcratiotis. The detection of gliicose in honey. of Cottonseed oil in dive oil, of cornstarch iir wheat flour are easy matiers for the food clietnist or microscopist. Therc is, in fact, no great teinpt,ation for the employment of such t,ypcs of so~~histication by tlie dishonest food manufacturer today. He recognizes that detection a i d punishment follo\y promptly upon tlie attempt. The more subtle forms of violatioil d i i c h are previlent today, hoxever, are not so
Figure I-Destruction
Of Pond Not in C:ompliance with Federai Food and Drugs Act
easily capable of detection. Parenthet,ically let nie say that the food manufacturer who deliberately adulterates his products is today tlie exception. The average producer of foods is committed t o t,he policy of producing pure and unadulterated goods, both because it is the ethical thing to do and brcause i t is a good business policy. Rut iii almost every line of industry there are, unfort,unately, small xiumbers of individuals who are willing to take the cliance of prosecution in the irope of securing a fcu dishonest dollars before detection occurs. Such individuals are ordinarily clever i n covering i t p
the deception practiced and are wise enough to hold the adulterations within such bounds as to t,ax the ability of the chemist to the highest degree. The legal defiuitioii of adulteration in the case of foods is broad. The law prohibits not only the additiou of irigrcdielits which may he ha.rmfu1t o the health of the consumer but. prohibits with equal positiveness the debasement of foods hy any form of manipulation which will result in cheating tlie buyer. Offenses against common decency, such as the sale of filthy, decomposed, or putrid substances, or tlie products of diseased animals or animals that have died otherwise than ljy slaughter, are equally uiider the ban. Under the migbranding sections of the law, deceptive practices in the sale of foods are likewise an offense. The last twenty years have witnessed the t.ransfer of the food mamifacturiug field from the kitchen to the factory. According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1926, the total value of all commodities manufactured in t,he United States in the census year 3925 was in excess of S62,000,000,000, of which more than $10,000,000,000 represents tlic value of food aiid kindred products. This exceeds t,he value of textiles and their products, of iron and steel a.od their products, ~ i oinclridiiig t machinery, and, in fact, of The commodities listed in each general group of industries. If we contemplate the enormous variety of food products now manufactured aiid tlie vast bulk of the annual distribution a i d remember further the scope of the defiiiit.ions of a d d teration arid misbranding just given, a glimpse is had of the magnitude of the food inspection chemist's problem. Tlie admixture of products wliolesome in themselves, but of less value than tlie food which the label rcprescnts tlic article t,o be, constitutes one of the most common t y p e of adulteration met by the chemist. Sormal, unadulterated foods, such as the vegetable oils and the spices, vary materially in their cliemical and physical characteristics. The subst,it.uted article may show characteristics overlapping those of the product to u-hich it is added as an adulterant,. The complexity of the regdntory chemist's task is proportionately increased. The estahlishment of the presence of added pepper shells in pepper, of cocoa shells in cocoa, of rape oil in olive oil, of field corn in canned sweet corn, have only recently presented to the regulatory food chemist prohlems which have hem solved with tlie greatest difficulty. That such problems can he and are being solved will be evident upon a consultation of the notices of prosecutions and seizures published by statc and federa.1enforciiig agencies. Solutions of Problems Call for Intensive Research
A s an illustration of a problem of tlic utmost difficulty invalving proof that a substance has been mixed and packed with an article so as t.o reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength, I may cite the case of pectiii in imitation fruit preserves and in compounds of pectin, fruit,, aiid sugar. Fruit pecbin is a x&olesome product, having a legitimate and proper place in foods where t.llie label statements truthfully and unequivocally indicate the character of the article in wliicli i t is used. Its use as a means of scant,ing the fruit ingredient of a preserve or of increasing the output througli incorporation of excessive sugar and water without appropriate label aunouncemcnt is indefensible. I3eing ail ingredient natural t o most fruit, the detection of added pectin has preserit.ed t.o the food chemist a problem of the first magnitude. Only after two or three years of the most iiitensive research, during which t,imc lcgitimatc manufacturers were sufferingfrom the cffects of unfair competition by those who were dishonestly using pectin without proper lahel declaration. were food chemists able to develou methods of analysis sufficiently coiiclusive to permit them to go into
court and estaldish that preserves and jams subjected to these analyses contained pectin. Tlie solution of tlie problem irivolved the fixing of certain atialytical ratios for authentic produeis and the development of accurate metliods for tl,e ilc$ection arid estimation of the characteristic fruit acids: malic, citric, and tartaric. A problem of similar difficult)involving a food relatively unimportant in the dietary, but representing a w r y large agricultural iiit,erest and trade iiivestment, was encounbercd in working out a method for the identification of t,hat type of vinegar made, as a by-product in the manufacture of pectin, from evaporated apple product. wliicli was being sold under tlie guise of vinegar mtde from fresh npple cider to the complete demoralizatioii of the genuine
F i m r e 2-Apparatus Ilsed in Mekine Photomlcraprapheln the Food. Drue. and Insecflclde Administration, U. 8. Department of A.c\riculture
cider viriegar industry. Again interisire chemical rescarell. extending o m r several years, was necessary to work out rnetliods of ident,ifging and distiriguisliing the evaporated apple vinegar d i e n substituted for apple cider vinegar. Tlic establishment of tlie abst,riict,ion of a valuahle constituent does not ordinarily present parbicularly serious difficulties to the chemist, but a determination of the fact that a partial abstraction has occurred and that damage or inferiorit,y has been coiicealed by some form of manipulation are serious problems. The latter problem is involved in those cases where artificial colors simulating genuine products are employed, or where imitation flavors are used in place of genuine flavors, in products represented to be germine fruit products. A special procedure has been developed for the detection and ideiitiijcatioii of artificial colors, but the establishment of the presence of such colors does not necessarily demonstrate that inferiorit,y or damage has tieen concealed. Let us t,ake for example the case of the product sold as egg noodles containing an ariificial color sufficient in itself to simulate the presence of eggs. In order to demonstrate a violation of the law the establisliment of the presence of the color must ordinarily be coupled xvitli a determination of t,lie aniount of eggs preseut. The chemist has successfully developed methods for the estimation of the egg ingredient. The establishment of tlie presence of added poisonous ingredients prcseiids a problcm of a scrious charactor hecausr ordinarily such ingredients are present in extremely small quantities and there is, moreover, the necessity for proving tirat the substance is present,in such quantities that the article may be deleterious to health. Here the services of the pharmacolorrist must sundement the work of the chemist. One of the m o s t imporiak and far-reaching problems that has
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
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confronted the food chemist has been the establishment of chemical means for the detection of decomposition in food products. This has been successfully accomplished in a wide variety of commodities, such, for example, as canned salmon, eggs, and tomato products. New Problems Constantly Arising As has been said, much progress has been made, but much remains to be done. Today the food chemist is concerned with such questions as the identification of imitation fruit flavors as distinguished from genuine flavors, especially where these occur in mixtures of both genuine and synthetic materials. Much progress has been made along the line of the differentiation of flavors, but problems are still arising. Such an apparently simple question as the detection of added water in food commodities sometimes raises almost insuperable obstacles. Water is the cheapest and most prevalent of adulterants. The hydrant is available to every food adulterator. The normal moisture content of natural food products varies within wide limits. How is the chemist to establish that the moisture content of a particular commodity has not been artificially increased by means of the town water supply? New theories of nutrition involving the vitamin content of foods and that of certain food accessories have
Vol. 20, No. 12
opened a wide field for the food manufacturer whose enthusiasm in advertising his product exceeds the bounds of propriety. Here the food chemist is confronted with questions calling for the development of novel methods of analysis. Ilustrations might be multiplied but time will not permit. I n conclusion, let me repeat that the problem of the food regulatory chemist is a complex and growing one and that his operations are of the utmost importance to the welfare not only of the consumer but of the honest food manufacturer. There is, moreover, an appeal to the chemist not only because of the public service involved, but because there are presented a great variety of problems of the most absorbing interest that have sufficed to enlist and hold in the regulatory services men of high ability and training. Let me say also that although the food inspection chemist does not ordinarily advertise his activities, knowing full well that to do so would damage the reputation of honest commodities which are in competition with adulterated and misbranded products, and that, although the American consumer may not, in general, be aware that he is protected by the vigilance of municipal, state, and federal food chemists, the network of food-law enforcing agencies of the United States guarantees today to the American table a safer, more honest, and more wholesome food supply than is available in any other country.
The Service of Chemistry to the Milling Industry C. 0. Swanson KANSASSTATEAGRICULTURALCOLLEGE,MANHATTAN, KANS.
HE milling industry has been slower in obtaining the
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full benefits of chemistry than some other industries. As the task of this industry is to convert cereals into food products the chemists employed in it are designated cereal chemists. Two decades ago the cereal chemists in this country numbered only a few dozen. Now these men have an association of several hundred active members, and there are probably as many more whose work is taken up, either exclusively or partially, with problems connected with wheat and flour. Twenty years ago less than a dozen flour mills had chemical laboratories. Now an important flour mill would no more think of dispensing with the chemist than they would with the miller. What are some of the reasons for the entrance of the chemist into this field of service? What are some of the results of his services? And what are some of the problems awaiting solution? Development of New Problems
The soils of the plains area of the United States, the largest wheat section in the world, accumulated nitrogen through countless ages. Abundance of nitrogen in the soil means strong wheat, provided climatic conditions are suitable to this crop. Depletion of nitrogen, with a demand for greater production per acre, means weaker wheat. The present-day miller is facing wheat problems unknown to the past generation. Then there is the change in the baking industry. Formerly most of the flour was used in the home. The housewife relies more on art than on science in baking, and she is able to make a satisfactory product from weaker flours. Her main purpose is to get palatable bread, and the number of loaves from a given quantity of flour is of secondary importance. Today probably more than half of our bread is baked in the commercial bakery, where profit must be a governing consideration. Not only is it necessary to make a bread suit-
able to the public taste, but the amount from any given lot of flour must be such that the shop will show a profit. Recently there have occurred tremendous mergers in the baking industry, It is stated on good authority that 40 flour buyers purchase 40 per cent of all the flour consumed in the United States. This concentration gives them a tremendous advantage in bargaining with mills. They can dictate the quality to be supplied and, within certain limits, the price as well. This forces the mills to standardize their flour to a degree unknown until a few years ago. Some of the larger milling concerns have established brands well known to the public. These flours are not so much better than some other less well-known brands, but they are uniform to a superlative degree. They are the same today, yesterday, and forever. The mills that achieved this distinction were the first to establish chemical laboratories. Without this service, such success would not have been possible. Other mills soon found out that if they were going to stay in the race they also must have the services of chemists. At first the principal duty of the mill chemist was to make what may be called a “post mortem” examination of the flour. The mill ground hundreds and thousands of barrels a day. Several times during the day samples of flour were taken to the laboratory where the chemist determined the ash, moisture, and protein, and in many cases, also made baking tests. Value of Chemical Tests
What is the value of the ash test? The wheat kernel consists of three main parts-the endosperm, the bran coat, and the germ. The work of the mill is to separate the outside bran coat and the germ from the inside endosperm and convert the latter into fine, white flour. As the bran coat contains from twenty to twenty-five times as much ash as the endosperm, the ash determination shows very accurately how successfully the mill performs its work.
