make a general statement concerning the attitude of this Department in matters of this kind. It is neither practicable nor advisable for the Department to act in the capacity of scientific adviser to any importer or manufacturer of food products. The Department should be left free in all cases to decide according to the existing law the fitness of any food product to be delivered to the consignee. It can not, therefore, advise in respect of the use of any preservative or any other added substance further than is done in the regular decisions published in this series. The addition of any preservative of any kind to a food product may be objected to for three reasons.
(1) It may be a case of misbranding when the added body is not mentioned on the label.
(2) The added substance itself may be deemed to be injurious to health either as the result of present knowledge or of subsequent investigations.
(3) The added substance may be forbidden by the laws of the country in which the foods are made or from which they are exported.
In the case of the German sausage referred to, both boric and salicylic acids are prohibited by the German laws. Boric acid has been declared by this Department to be injurious to health. It does not appear that there is any convincing reason for the use of any preservatives in sausages except the usual condimental ingredients—salt, vinegar, spices, and wood smoke.
Until the results of experiments conducted in the Bureau of Chemistry are declared, small quantities of benzoic acid and benzoates, salicylic acid and salicylates, sulfurous acid and sulfites and copper sulfate are permitted in food products when plainly declared upon the label and when not forbidden by the laws of the countries where the foods are produced or from which they are exported. With respect to sulfurous acid in wine, this decision is not intended to supplant the principles laid down in F. I. D. 28. This permission is given without prejudice to any future decision of the Department excluding such substances by reason of excessive quantity or as being prejudicial to health, or for other legal causes.
Approved:
James Wilson,
Secretary of Agriculture.
Washington, D. C., January 16, 1906.
(F. I. D. 35.)
MODIFYING IN CERTAIN CASES PROVISIONS IN F. I. D. 12 AND F. I. D. 26.
Experience has shown that in some cases the literal execution of the provisions of F. I. D. 12, of March 1, 1905, relating to first notice to importer, and of F. I. D. 26, relating to the date at which relabeling after arrival in the United States may be permitted, namely, September 1, 1905, may cause unnecessary annoyance and inconvenience. It is therefore ordered that these two decisions be modified to permit in certain cases the importation of an article not labeled strictly in harmony with the provisions of the food-inspection laws after it is relabeled in a manner satisfactory to the Department. Such action seems especially desirable at the smaller ports, where exact information respecting the requirements of the inspection of foods is not so easily obtainable.
F. I. D. 26 is also amended so that in certain cases importation after relabeling will be permitted. It is difficult to state exactly in what cases these amendments to F. I. D. 12 and F. I. D. 26 will be applied. In general, it may be said that where a food product is misbranded, but no substance deleterious to health has been added, and where neither the importer nor the shipper has had notice of the existence of the law or of its requirements,
