Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1918 — Food Inspectors Help. [ARTICLE]

Food Inspectors Help.

The housewife can see at a glance how much food she is to get for her money when it is in package form and labeled in accordance with the provisions of the federal food and drugs act, say the officials of the bureau of chemistry of the United States department of agriculture, charged with the enforcement of that law. The federal food and drugs act provides that all food in package form, shipped .into interstate or foreign commerce, shall bear on the labels a plain and conspicuous statement of the quantity of. the contents of the package, In terms of weight, measure or numerical count. Federal food Inspectors are always on the watch for interstate shipment of food in package form, to see that the labels tell the truth with respect to the quantity of food in the packages. Several samples are taken from each shipment in order that their average weight may be determined. If the packages are found to be short in weight or measure, the party responsible for the shipment may be prosecuted under the criminal section of the law. ’ • The act does not apply to foods which are sold and consumed within the state where produced or manufactured, but to those that are shipped from one state to another, or to or from a foreign country, or manufactured or sold within the District Ot Columbia or a territory. Many states have net weight or measure laws, however, which protect the housewife from short weight or measure in package foods produced and sold within the state. Federal and state food officials co-operate in the work of enforcing these laws in order that abuses which cannot be reached under one law may be corrected under the other. Children should never be allowed rich and heavy preserves.