Chapter XXI

there are some details to be studied in purchasing food.

=Personal attention in buying food.=——It is absolutely necessary to visit the market and the grocery where food is purchased. The purchaser would not fail to visit a shop before deciding to patronize it regularly, but frequent calls are necessary if buying is to be economical. Select the grocery, market, and bakery with a view to their cleanliness. Notice if the doors and windows are screened, and if proper effort is made to catch flies that may have entered. Refuse to buy food that is exposed upon the sidewalk, and if it is within doors, see that it is protected from dust and flies. The best markets now have tiled walls and floors, which help to insure cleanliness. The difference in odor is marked between a market that is properly cleaned daily, and one where the proprietor uses uncleanly methods. Meat and vegetables, in particular, should be personally selected whenever this is possible. The butcher must understand that the purchaser is familiar with the different cuts of meat and that honest service is demanded in regard to the quality, trimming, and weight of the meat. One does not want to be too suspicious, but it is well for the butcher to know that the purchaser has a set of standard scales at home by which to prove the accuracy of his weighing. It is also important to inspect fruit and vegetables for quality and cost.

=Quantities in which to purchase food.=——The amount that one purchases of a certain food depends on its keeping qualities, and upon the storage space available at home. A general rule may be stated: Buy perishable foods in small quantities; non-perishable foods in large. The reason for buying in larger quantity is that the cost is somewhat less, although sometimes it seems but little less. Some one has remarked that no one is a good buyer who does not consider a quarter of a cent. In a modern house or apartment where there is not room for a barrel of flour or sugar, then the quantity must be gauged by the space. The same is true of canned goods as of flour and sugar. Buying by the dozen saves a little on each can if you have shelf room for piling the cans.

Foods may be classed in this connection as perishable, semi-perishable, and non-perishable. This depends somewhat for any one housekeeper upon the size of her refrigerator, and upon an available place where food may be cool, even if not so cold as in the refrigerator. Those foods classed here as perishable are those which readily “spoil,” that is, those that are affected by mold and bacteria on account of the moisture that they contain, and also those that lose flavor and freshness quickly. Those most easily affected should be kept the coldest; those in the semi-perishable group do not deteriorate so rapidly, although a low temperature is desirable with all of these. Under the non-perishable foods are classed those that are not subject to bacteria or mold in ordinary circumstances. These should be kept dry, however, and never in a heated place. In a sense, no food material is non-perishable. Insects sometimes develop in the cereal products, for instance, and the material is thus rendered unfit for food. The food adjuncts do not spoil except as they lose flavor if kept too long.

_Perishable._——Milk, cream, uncooked meat, uncooked fish, shellfish, berries, fruits with delicate skins, lettuce, and vegetables that wilt easily.

_Semi-perishable._——Butter, eggs, cooked meat and fish, root vegetables, cooked vegetables, left overs in general, skin fruits like apples, bananas, oranges, and lemons, dried fruits, scalded milk and cream, smoked and salted fish and meats, open molasses and sirup.

_Non-perishable._——Flour, meals and cereals, sugar, salt, and other condiments and flavorings, jellies, preserves and canned goods, coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate.

=Suggestions for buying.=——Milk and cream must be delivered daily. The average amount used by the family is the regular order. Fresh meat should be delivered on the day wanted unless the refrigerator is large with a space for hanging meat. Even then, it should not be kept more than twenty-four hours. Meat should not be placed directly on the ice. Fresh berries and delicate vegetables should be delivered on the day wanted. Butter and eggs may be purchased once a week; other semi-perishables in quantities depending on storage space. It is economical to buy a box of lemons, and the root vegetables in large quantities. Flour and sugar are purchased by the bag or barrel; lump sugar, in boxes. Breakfast cereals are best bought in packages, and it is wise not to buy a large number at one time. It is better to purchase oftener and have fresher material. Coffee may be bought in pound cans, but it is economy to purchase it in five or ten pound quantities, unground. Tea comes in closely sealed packages, in 1/4, 1/2, and 1 lb. and larger. Cocoa is bought in 1/2 lb. cans, but it is economy to buy in large cans if it is frequently used. Macaroni is bought by the package, and the number at one time must depend on how much it is used in the menu. Rice, tapioca, and sago may be bought in bulk and kept in tin or glass jars. Salt by the bag or box. Spices, ground, in tight boxes; whole in bulk, to be kept in tightly closed cans. Molasses comes by the gallon or in cans. If in bulk, it is usually acid; in the can it is not. Vinegar comes by the gallon, or in bottles. Canned and preserved goods, singly, by the dozen, or case. Bakery products, when bought at all, should be purchased daily, or every other day. Do not buy so much that stale bread accumulates.

=Weights, measures, and packages.=——The buyer is at a disadvantage here in regard to quantities, for the baskets in which fruits and vegetables are sold do not always conform to the standard dry measures, and dishonest dealers evade the law in regard to the use of standard scales. Even if they have the standard, they resort to tricks that give the customer short weights. Here the Bureau of Weights and Measures, with its Commissioner and corps of inspectors, comes to the aid of the purchaser. Effective work has been done in our cities in enforcing the laws, and this work continues.

Selling fruit, vegetables, and even eggs by weight would simplify matters in many ways, and this is the custom in some parts of the United States with vegetables and fruit, although it is not yet a common practice; with eggs it seems more convenient to sell by the dozen, but grading according to size is a step toward standardization.

The alluring packages in which so many articles are offered are quite uneven as to the quantities they contain. They certainly do away with some handling of food, and they keep out dust. Unfortunately, an attractive package does not guarantee a clean factory or clean handling in the packing. Dried figs, for example, in pretty baskets are sometimes packed in uncleanly places. Moreover, small packages are poor economy, since the box adds to the cost of the food material, and sometimes there seems even more package than food. If the family consumes many biscuits or “crackers,” it costs considerably more to buy them in packages. Yet, these are convenient, and should be cleanly, and are justified for these reasons, provided the housekeeper does not buy many small packages.

The quantities in canned goods are variable and sometimes below measure when purchased from a second-rate dealer. In September, 1914, the net weight amendment to the National Food Law will go into effect, after which, in general, foods sold in packages must be labeled to show net weight or measure or numerical count.

As already suggested, you should own standard scales for testing the purchases made by weight, even baker’s bread. Buy fruit and vegetables by the quart, peck, and bushel, rather than by the basket of uncertain measure. Examine baskets containing small fruits to see if they have false bottoms. If you discover small measure, report at once to the dealer, and to whatever authority has charge of such matters in your town.

=Quality.=——Modern methods of manufacture, transportation, and storage make it difficult to determine the history and quality of food we purchase in the markets. Yet the consumer has a natural right to know if the food offered for sale is the best of its kind; fresh eggs, clean milk, meat from healthy animals, untainted and free from harmful preservatives, sound vegetables and fruit, manufactured and preserved foodstuffs unspoiled by the manufacturing processes, free from harmful preservatives, and of good flavor. Many people must be in danger of forgetting the flavor of a fresh-laid egg. The familiar signs in many small shops, “Fresh eggs,” “Strictly fresh eggs,” “Fancy eggs,” are amusing, but they bespeak an unnatural state of things.

As our business methods have created conditions beyond the control of the individual consumer it follows that we must take concerted action, and make and enforce whatever laws are necessary. This is done partly through the Federal government, and partly through state laws and municipal ordinances. Thus, while we may not know the actual conditions in which food is produced, we may through legislation seek to insure that the food we buy shall be

(1) what it purports to be in kind and amount,

(2) free from deterioration or unwholesome conditions,

(3) possessed of full nutritive value.

The Federal Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906, commonly known as “The Pure Food Law,” and on which subsequent legislation by most of the states has been largely based, defines the main types of adulteration and misbranding, but, except in the case of confectionery and of habit-forming drugs, does not name the specific substances which are to be prohibited or restricted in use, nor does the law itself contain standards of composition for foods.

According to this law _a food is deemed adulterated_:

(1) If any substance has been mixed or packed with it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength.

(2) If any substance has been substituted, wholly or in part.

(3) If any valuable constituent has been wholly or in part abstracted.

(4) If it be mixed, colored, coated, powdered, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed.

(5) If it contain any added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredient which may render such article injurious to health.

(6) If it consists in whole or in part of a filthy, decomposed, or putrid animal or vegetable substance, or any portion of an animal unfit for food, or if it be the product of a diseased animal, or one that has died otherwise than by slaughter.

_And a food is deemed to be misbranded:_

(1) If it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article.

(2) If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser, or purport to be a foreign product when not so, or if the contents shall have been substituted in whole or in part, or if it fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any narcotic or habit-forming drug which it contains.

(3) If it bear an incorrect statement of weight or measure.

(4) If the package containing it or its label shall bear any statement, design, or device which is false or misleading in any particular.

For a fuller discussion of the basis of pure food legislation and the essential features of the United States laws see Sherman’s “Food Products,” from which a part of the summary here given is drawn.

The modern cold storage plant is of immense service in keeping food from the season of abundance to that of scarcity, but it may prove worse than useless if improperly managed. State and federal laws must control the management, and government inspection must be thorough. Cold storage would be a benefit to all under proper conditions of management, and the prices of many foods would be evenly adjusted by the maintenance of a steady supply. Many states now have laws regulating cold storage plants and there is every reason to hope that the abuses which have sometimes existed will be eliminated and the usefulness of cold storage extended.

We may feel that the progress of the pure food movement has been most satisfactory, even though much more remains to be done. The states generally have either enacted new food laws, or revised their laws following the national law. Under the national law over 2000 prosecutions have already (1913) been decided in favor of the government.

Congress has passed an even more stringent law for meat inspection supplementary to the Pure Food Law with ample appropriation for its enforcement. Moreover, in 1913, the Secretary of Agriculture appointed outside experts to inspect meat-packing establishments throughout the country. This inspection is to check up the regular work being done by the Bureau of Animal Industry.

The enforcing of federal and state laws has already largely stopped the misbranding of package foods as to weight or measure, cheap substitutions, the removal of valuable ingredients, and the sale of decomposed or tainted food derived from diseased animals. Remember that abuses can be kept down to any extent that we are willing to pay for. Taxpayers must appropriate money to pay for inspection, for laws, no matter how good, will not insure pure food unless carried out faithfully by an adequate number of specially trained inspectors.

In the face of all these difficulties we must not be frightened into that state of mind where danger seems to lurk in every mouthful. We must use caution and common sense in our buying, and earnestly support every good movement for bettering conditions.

There is a certain difference in quality even at a first class dealer’s that one must learn to distinguish. One can of peaches will cost more than another, because the peaches are larger. If it is only this, and there is only a slight difference in flavor in favor of the more costly, buy the cheaper by all means. A fancy brand of imported preserves brings a fancy price which it is not worth while to pay. We have to learn to distinguish between poor and good quality, on the one hand, and between good and what may be called “fancy,” on the other. We should demand the good, but most of us cannot afford the “fancy.”

=Ready-cooked foods.=——More and more cooked food, canned or otherwise, is taking its place in the market. When canned goods were first manufactured on a large scale they comprised fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish, but we are now accustomed to a miscellaneous variety, including soups, baked beans, puddings, and pudding sauces, spaghetti, hashed meat, and shellfish. Bakery products have a larger sale than ever, and are found in small towns, and even in country districts carried there by bakers’ wagons. In our large cities we find the “delicatessen shop” very common, where small portions of cooked meats and fowl may be purchased after the custom of Europe, and these stores are open even on Sunday.

How shall we decide what is best for us in our buying? We must not condemn entirely the buying of cooked food without a careful study of the situation. The custom has grown with changes in our mode of living, especially in cities, where the small apartment is common, and where gas is the fuel. Under these conditions it is difficult to prepare foods that need long and slow cooking, and these processes are more expensive when gas is used. The long slow cooking of soup and beans, the even baking of bread, are difficult to accomplish. The odors from these processes fill the small apartment, and scent it for some time, and this is unpleasant at all seasons.

Take another example, the canning and preserving of fruits. The first cost of the fruit is usually high in the city, and this plus the sugar and the gas, and the labor and the lack of storage space make it seem impracticable in these conditions, and many people decide in favor of buying goods already canned. Such housekeeping is simplified by buying cooked products to some extent. The fireless cooker helps here, but not for all processes. Counting in fuel, the cost is not so much greater as we might suppose; and comfort and convenience are increased. Under other conditions, even in the city, a different conclusion is reached. If coal is the fuel, and a steady fire is kept, perhaps in winter for heating purposes, then it is economy to cook most food materials at home.

In the country and small village different conditions prevail. Here the abundance of certain fruits in season makes it economical to can and dry, even counting fuel and labor. In some sections many people can their own vegetables also. However, even in the country in the summer, it is a decided relief to the farmer’s wife, probably short of “help,” to win a little leisure by buying staple bakery products. Here if strict economy is not necessary, is it not better to save strength rather than money? Each housekeeper must work out these problems for herself.

EXERCISES

1. What are the more permanent factors in the cost of food material?

2. Why is vegetable food usually cheaper than animal food?

3. Explain the effect of season upon the cost.

4. Why does transportation affect the cost of food?

5. Why is clean milk more costly than unclean?

6. How do business conditions affect the cost?

7. Why is wheat bread a truly cheap food?

8. How can we estimate the cost of the actual nutrients in food?

9. Describe the working of the pure food law.

10. Why are such laws necessary?

11. How may we all aid in the passage and enforcement of pure food laws?

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