Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1907 — TRY IT ON THE DOG. [ARTICLE]

TRY IT ON THE DOG.

Food Expert Wiley Deems Refrigerated Meat Unsafe. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Uncle Sam’s wizard in chemistry, believes that refrigerated meat is unsafe. Meat and other foods, if appearances are to be accepted, may be kept in cold storage for long periods without any apparent degradation in their nutritive value or quality. But between the time they are removed form the refrigerator and the time that they are prepared for eating, ptomaine or alkaloidal Codies may develop that would make them fatal if taken into the human stomach. The meat, poultry, game and other articles that have been in Dr. Wiley’s icehouse for the last two years will not therefore be fed to the poison squad. When put in the refrigerator plant in the first instance the tissues of the meat j were carefully measured and have since ■ been remeasured at frequent intervals. Every change in texture has beeen carefully noted from time to time. In the final examination of the refrigerated foods they will be tested by Dr. Wiley and his assistants and their odor will serve as a guide in determining whether or not they are sound, nutritious and wholesome after being for a long time behind closed doors in an ice cold atmosphere. In taste and odor the refrigerator meat will be compared with fresh beef. Then the beef will be fed to the department dog, who has waxed fat these many days on foods generally* regarded by the world at large as hnrtfnl to health. While Dr. Wiley absolutely declined to comment on the lessons taught by tbs experiments about to be conducted, there is reason to believe that he will report to Congress that it Is in all probability unsafe and doubtless dangerous for one to eat fooda that are kept in cold storage for periods exceeding three months. This applies particularly to meat, game asd poultry. What Dr. Wiley himself thinks of eggs that have been on ice from summer until late in the winter he refused to say. When the snbject waa mentioned he merely held his nose.