ATTEMPT TO MODIFY THE FOOD LAW
While the foregoing is interesting as a sample of bureaucratic ethics it serves solely as a background to an assault on the food law. The most objectionable effort of the Bureau of Standards was in trying, by the great weight of its authority as the original discoverers, to force this product upon the American people under the guise of real sugar. A bill was introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr. Cole, on December 7, 1925 (H. R. No. 39), providing that the Food and Drugs Act be amended so that the presence of dextrose in food products would not be regarded as a misbranding and would not require any notification of its presence. The same bill (S. 481), was introduced into the Senate of the United States by Mr. Cummins on Dec. 8, 1925. The Senate bill was considered by the Committee on Manufactures, beginning Thursday, January 7, 1926. There was no very great publicity given to this hearing and the only persons who appeared, besides the members of the Committee, were Senator Cummins, Representative Holaday, and Representative Cole. Senator Cummins said to the Committee: "Introduction of that paragraph into the law would avoid the charge that any article of food in which corn sugar is used is either misbranded or adulterated." Mr. Holaday said: "Mr. Chairman, I should like to voice my approval of the measure before you, and the feeling is somewhat general throughout the agricultural regions of the country that this bill may be of benefit to corn producers. The fact that the producer of goods sweetened with cane sugar is not compelled to place anything to that effect on his label, while the manufacturer who sweetens with corn sugar is required to mention that fact on his label, creates an unjust impression in the minds of the people." Representative Cole stated: "The difference between dextrose and sucrose, a chemist has told me, is as small as a molecule of water. "Now what does that mean? It means that it will be used very largely, especially in the case of sweetened fruits. You buy canned peaches, sweetened apples, in many cases too sweet, in fact they have to put in so much cane sugar in preserving these fruits that they become almost like a sirup. In using corn sugar that degree of sweetness would not be obtained, but still the preserving power would be there. The Committee, after hearing these witnesses and no one appearing in opposition, made a favorable report and as a result of this report the Senate unammously passed the bill.
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