—There is no necessity to enter into the detail of the preparation of other canned vegetables further than to say that practically all vegetables which are offered on the market, except those which are necessarily eaten in a raw state, are preserved or can be preserved by the sterilizing process.
Tomato Ketchup.
—A sauce which is used in large quantities in the United States and in other countries is known as tomato ketchup and is manufactured in many parts of the country. Tomato ketchup is the pulp of sound, ripe tomatoes mixed with various condimental substances and flavoring matters to make it palatable and desirable as a sauce. The character of flavor and condimental substances employed is left to the judgment of the manufacturer and the taste of the consumer, provided the materials are wholesome and sanitary. It has been claimed by some manufacturers that it is impracticable to place this desirable product upon the market without the use of chemical antiseptics. They admit, as in the case of the manufacture of fruit sirups, that tomato ketchup can be sterilized and kept properly until the bottle is opened for consumption; but, inasmuch as it is used in small quantities and a bottle of it lasts for many days, it cannot be kept in a proper state except by the use of such preservatives. The principal antiseptics which are used in connection with tomato ketchup are salicylic and benzoic acids.
Experience has shown that these claims are not of sufficient value to warrant the exception of tomato ketchup from the ordinary regulations respecting pure food. The habit of leaving a tomato ketchup bottle upon the table where the material adheres to the rim and becomes hardened to a gummy paste, serving as a pabulum for flies, does not appeal with any great force to the æsthetic sense relative to dining rooms. A ketchup bottle carefully opened and used in such a way as to avoid infection and then returned to the ice box can be kept for many days without danger of fermentation.
Artificial Colors.
—Tomato ketchup is sometimes subjected to artificial coloring. This is done to imitate the color of the best raw material. If red, ripe, sound tomatoes are used no artificial color is necessary.
Use of Refuse for Making Ketchup.
—It has been stated that the ripe, imperfect tomatoes at the time of harvesting are cooked in large quantities and treated with benzoic acid and stored in large containers until the canning season is over, after which this material is made into ketchup and artificially colored. Further statements have also been made to the effect that the skins, cores, and refuse of the cannery have been treated in the same way as indicated below. The proper inspection of the factories would exclude from the preparation of ketchup unfit material of the kind mentioned. It is doubtless true that when the people are finally convinced that the ketchup which is used is made of the best material and contains no artificial color or no harmful antiseptic, its use will be immensely increased.
A manufacturer of ketchup recently made the following statement respecting the utilization of the refuse matter at the cannery:
“We use in our standard catsup the peelings and small tomatoes. We preserve the pulp with four ounces of sodium benzoate to each 50 gallon barrel, cooked and whipped through a cyclone pulp machine. It takes two barrels of this stock to produce 60 gallons of catsup, and we use eight ounces more of sodium benzoate to preserve it.”