The Propaganda for Reform in Proprietary Medicines, Vol. 1 of 2

by Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

Special notice is directed to the price of some of these preparations, which in spite of their large water content, are higher priced than some of the solid meat extracts.

MEAT JUICES

The following is given as the standard for preparations of meat juice:

“Meat juice ... is the fluid portion of muscle fiber obtained by pressure or otherwise, and may be concentrated by evaporation at a temperature below the coagulating point of the soluble proteids. The solids contain not more than 15 per cent. of ash, not more than 2.5 per cent. of sodium chlorid (calculated from the total chlorin present), not more than 4 per cent. nor less than 2 per cent. of phosphoric acid (P₂O₅), and not less than 12 per cent. of nitrogen. The nitrogenous bodies contain not less than 35 per cent. of coagulable proteids and not more than 40 per cent. of meat bases.”

It is especially noticeable among the meat juices, so called, that none shows any appreciable amount of coagulable proteids. Valentine’s Meat Juice and Wyeth’s Beef Juice, besides being below the standard in total solids as fluid extracts, are misbranded when called meat or beef juices, as can readily be seen by comparing the results of the analyses and the standard.

Wyeth’s Beef Juice is advertised as containing “all the albuminous principles of beef in an active and soluble form” and “in an unaltered form”—​two statements that are on the face of them untrue and misleading. To say that all the albuminous principles of meat are present is to say that not only the juice of the meat but all the fiber is present, which evidently is not true. Then again, to say that it is present in an unaltered form is far from the facts, for, as is stated on page 18 of the Bulletin: “It appears impracticable to prepare a true meat juice for market, as the temperature necessary for the preservation of food products in hermetically sealed packages coagulates the proteids and changes the nature of the product.” On page 55: “When prepared under the best possible conditions a commercial meat extract is, of necessity, in order that it may not spoil, deprived of the greater part of the coagulable proteids, which constitute the chief nutritious elements of the juice.”

On examining the tables of analysis, it is seen that Wyeth’s Beef Juice contains but 23 per cent. of its total proteids in a coagulable form, while the standard calls for 35 per cent., thus showing it to be no more valuable as a food product than any other so-called meat juice, the statements of the manufacturers to the contrary notwithstanding.

In the case of Valentine’s Meat Juice we note a large discrepancy between the standard requirements and the results of the government analysis, for instead of the proteid matter containing 35 per cent. in the coagulable form, it contains but 1.6 per cent. These figures show, then, that Valentine’s preparation contains practically no coagulable proteids, and since the quantity of these measures the food value of such preparations, the conclusion must be drawn that Valentine’s Meat Juice has practically no value as a food and should certainly not be classed as a meat juice.

Bovinine, another widely advertised meat preparation, which, according to statements on “The Bovinine Co.’s” letter head, is “a concentrated beef juice” and “the only perfect food in the world” was analyzed and found below the standard set for meat juices, since it contains only 3.38 per cent. of coagulable proteids. Yet in spite of this discrepancy, the manufacturers of Bovinine persist in exploiting it as a food, stating it to be “... a concentrated easily assimilable, nitrogenous food,” and in another place it is stated that Bovinine “is an ideal food.” As it is deficient in coagulable proteids and thus below the requirements as a food, it is misbranded when called a food of any sort, for to quote again the Bulletin, page 55: “... meat extracts ... must not be looked on as representing in any notable degree the food value of the beef or other meat from which they are derived”; and, again: “They are not, however, concentrated foods, having, on the contrary, but comparatively little nutritive value.”

Taken individually or as a class, meat extracts are not to be considered foods, and should, therefore, not be advertised as such, a conclusion which the government officials have come to and voiced in the conclusion of the Bulletin as follows: