pure spices, and saltpeter may be added. Sodium benzoate may be used when its presence and amount are shown on the label. Only such coloring matters as may be designated by the Secretary of Agriculture as being harmless may be used and these only in such manner as the Secretary of Agriculture may designate. The full text of the meat inspection law and some of the regulations for its enforcement, especially those which are in the nature of requirements as to sanitation, and the sanitary handling of meats and other slaughter house products intended for food will be found in the Appendix. The need of adequate State and city meat inspection to supplement the work of the Federal authorities has already been mentioned. This is important both to secure proper conditions in local slaughter houses and to insure proper handling of the meat in wholesale and retail markets and shops. The flesh of a healthy animal should be practically sterile at slaughter, and we have seen above that in good meat kept frozen the multiplication and penetration of bacteria is slow; but in an investigation by Weinzirl and Newton, the bacteria content of Hamburg steak as sold was found to range from 269,000 to 525,000,000 bacteria per gram, about half the samples examined. showing over 10,000,000. Plainly consumers should demand a more careful handling of meat products. Aside from the question of the sanitary character of the meat supply which is of very real importance to health, the trade also recognizes differences in "quality" or grade depending upon the texture and palatability of the meat which are considerably influenced by the age, nutritive condition, and other characteristics of the animal. These differences are of no particular significance to the food value or wholesomeness of the meat, but since the market price depends largely upon them, they are of considerable commercial importance and differences of usage regarding such commercial classification and grading tends to demoralize the meat industry. The United States Department of Agriculture has endeavored to assist in solving this problem by adopting a standard set of classes and grades for cattle and calves and formulating simple and easily understood definitions for each. Cattle and calves for slaughter have been divided into seven classes: Steers, baby beef, heifers, cows, stags, bulls, and veal calves. Some of these are still further divided into subclasses on weight, such as heavyweights, mediumweights, and lightweights. Having grouped the animals in these seven classes, such grouping being based largely on sex and age, each class is further subdivided into grades. Although the number of grades varies somewhat between classes, -Chuck the more important grades are: Prime, choice, good, medium, and common. Rib FIG. 18.Wholesale Cuts of Beef according to the Chicago System of Cutting. United States Department of Agriculture, Yearbook for 1921, page 308. As there is even more confusion in the minds of most people regarding the various classes and grades of dressed meats than of live animals, a similar classification of dressed beef and veal has been made. These grades of the dressed meat correspond with those of the live animals. In other words, a "choice " steer must produce "choice" beef and a "common" steer, (6 common" beef. As a basis of understanding the classes and grades of beef, an idea of the important wholesale and retail cuts, their location in the carcass, and the percentage of the total weight of the "side" which each cut comprises, is necessary. (See Fig. 18.) Methods of cutting up a beef carcass vary in different parts of the country, and it is obvious that the number of pounds in the different cuts and the percentage of the carcass weight represented by a given cut will depend upon the method of cutting adopted. The Chicago system of cutting (Fig. 18) is said to be more extensively used than any other. Table 20 shows the result of a cutting test made in Washington, D. C., late in 1921. TABLE 20. THE WEIGHTS OF THE WHOLESALE AND RETAIL CUTS OF AN The following are quoted from the Standards of Purity for Food Products, published by the United States Department of Agriculture as Circular 136, Office of the Secretary, June, 1919. 1 Loss in making wholesale cuts 1 pounds, due largely to the fact that in weighing the cuts one fourth pound was the smallest unit considered. a. MEATS 1. Meat, flesh, is any clean, sound, dressed, and properly prepared edible part of animals in good health at the time of slaughter, and if it bears a name descriptive of its kind, composition, or origin, it corresponds thereto. The term "animals," as herein used, includes not only mammals, but fish, fowl, crustaceans, mollusks, and all other animals used as food. 2. Fresh meat is meat from animals recently slaughtered and properly cooled until delivered to the consumer. 3. Cold-storage meat is meat from animals recently slaughtered and preserved by refrigeration until delivered to the consumer.1 4. Salted, pickled, and smoked meats are unmixed meats preserved by salt, sugar, vinegar, spices, or smoke, singly or in combination, whether in bulk or in suitable containers.2 b. MANUFACTURED MEATS 1. Manufactured meats are meats not included in paragraphs 2, 3, and 4, whether simple or mixed, whole or comminuted, in bulk or in suitable containers,2 with or without the addition of salt, sugar, vinegar, spices, smoke, oils, or rendered fat. If they bear names descriptive of kind, composition, or origin, they correspond thereto, and when bearing such descriptive names, if force or flavoring meats are used, the kind and quantity thereof are made known. C. MEAT EXTRACTS, MEAT PEPTONES, ETC. (Schedule in preparation.) d. LARD 1. Lard is the rendered fresh fat from hogs in good health at the time of slaughter, is clean, free from rancidity, and contains, necessarily incorporated in the process of rendering, not more than one per cent (1%) of substances, other than fatty acids and fat. 1 The establishment of proper periods of time for cold storage is reserved for future consideration, when the investigations on this subject, authorized by Congress, are completed. 2 Suitable containers for keeping moist food products, such as sirups, honeys, condensed milk, soups, meat extracts, meats, manufactured meats, and undried fruits and vegetables, and wrappers in contact with food products contain on their surfaces, in contact with the food product, no lead, antimony, arsenic, zinc or copper, or any compounds thereof, or any other poisonous or injurious substance. If the containers are made of tin plate they are outside soldered and the plate in no place contains less than one hundred and thirteen (113) milligrams of tin on a piece five (5) centimeters square or one and eight tenths (1.8) grains on a piece two (2) inches square. The inner coating of the containers is free from pin holes, blisters, and cracks. If the tin plate is lacquered, the lacquer completely covers the tinned surface within the container, and yields to the contents of the container no lead, antimony, arsenic, zinc or copper, or any compounds thereof, or any other poisonous or injurious substance. 2. Leaf lard is lard rendered at moderately high temperatures from the internal fat of the abdomen of the hog, excluding that adherent to the intestines, and has an iodin number not greater than sixty (60). 3. Neutral lard is lard rendered at low temperatures. Meat Extracts and Related Products Beef extract was highly recommended by Liebig, who at one time supposed it to be of great nutritive value because it contained much nitrogen in a form readily absorbed from the digestive tract. Later he realized that this was an error and said that the extract "does not give us strength but makes us aware of our strength." In other words he realized that the effect of the meat extract is that of a stimulant rather than a food. Manufacturers of beef extract still frequently apply the term "Liebig's extract" to their product. In South America, especially before the country was thickly settled and before facilities for transportation of meat for long distances under refrigeration had been introduced, large factories for the manufacture of beef extract were established and droves of cattle were slaughtered for their hides and the extract obtained from their flesh, the rest of the flesh being merely a by-product. Beef is now shipped in large quantities from South America; but large quantities of beef extract are still made in South America and it is also of considerable importance as one of the numerous secondary products of the beef-packing industry in the United States. Pieces of meat removed in trimming quarters and sides for market, as well as cuts for which there is less market demand, are cut small and put in water in a closed digester (generally with the addition of salt) and heated under pressure of 1 atmospheres of steam for several hours until the extraction is judged to be complete, then allowed to cool, the fat removed from the surface, and the liquid strained to remove the solid pieces. |