Chemicals in Foods

Report Outline
Scientific Advances and Safety of Foods
Health Problems Raised by New Pesticides
Hazards to Health from Chemical Additives
Modernization of Food Safeguards

Scientific Advances and Safety of Foods

New uses of Chemicals in Food Products

Every american will have a stake in legislation to be recommended to Congress at its present session by a select committee of the House which for two years has been investigating the use of chemicals in foods. Many health officials and scientists, as well as representatives of some companies in the food industries, have told the committee that new uses in foods of chemicals developed during the last dozen years call for modernization and strengthening of the nation's food control laws.

Putting chemicals in foods is not a new practice and not in itself any cause for concern. Foods themselves are chemicals; production and processing of foods are in part matters of chemistry; food is put to use in the human body by complex chemical processes.

For generations, chemicals have been added to enhance the flavor or appearance of foods or to preserve them. Smoking adds chemicals to meats and fish. The salt and sugar used in home canning class as chemical additives. Moreover, chemicals are added to such foods as bread, milk, and margarine to enrich their vitamin or mineral content. Table salt is iodized to help prevent goitre; sodium fluoride is added to drinking water to reduce tooth decay in growing children.