Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1907 — FILTHY BAKERIES IN HAMMOND. [ARTICLE]

FILTHY BAKERIES IN HAMMOND.

State Food Inspector Says Various Rules of Health Board Are Be* Ing Violated. The state food and drug inspector is preparing to prosecute numerous proprietors of Hammond bakeries and other violations of the food and sanitary laws. They have failed to observe bis instructions on a former visit of inspection and now he will prosecute them. Asked by a Hammond newspaper reporter regarding the condition he found on hie first visit of inspection, Mr. Tucker is quoted as saying: “I found the laws being flagrantly violated every time I turned around. All the samples Qf milk I took up were found to be below the standard. Many of them were found to contain formaldehyde, borax and other preservatives and adulterants.^-We found formaldehyde in ice cream. This would go to show that the adulteration was made at the farm, as most of the ice cream manufacturers get their milk directly from the producer. I found that butchers were using phosphates to preserve their meat. Most of the samples of lard that we bought was not lard at all but a compound of various foreign ingredients. “There was hardly a bakery in Hammond or vicinity to which I could give a clean bill of health. Little attempt was made to comply with the laws of sanitation and some of the bake shops I inspected were positively filthy. I find now that little attempt has been made in the direction of reform along this line and the only thing left to do is to prosecute. “I picked up dozens of eggs offered for sale as ‘fresh’ which had been taken out of incubators and from under setting hens, after it was discovered that they wouldn’t hatch. “The law which provides that all food stuffs displayed on side walks shall be protected from dust, flies and other contamination, seems to have been regarded as a joke, not only by the dealers but by the consumers. “Another rule of the state board of health based upon the state law. that seems to be ignored by farmers, express companies and meat dealers, and that is the one regulating the shipment of carcasses, whole or in part. The law provides that those carcasses or portions thereof shall be encased in ' clean white cloths before shipment. I haven’t saw a carcass of veal shipped into Hammond treated in this way. Any day you pass the express offices or railway stations you will find dead calves piled on the side walk or on trucks. They have been killed at the farm disemboweled, the head and feet chopped off and sent to market in stuffy express oars and allowed to rot in the sun before they reach 1 the consumer. Go by some day and shake one of them and see how many blue flies make thier escape, see if you can count them.”