PART II
The Manufacture of Tomato Catsup, Chili Sauce, Trimming Pulp, and Tomato Soup
CHAPTER VIII
A DISCUSSION OF PRESERVATIVE AND NON-PRESERVATIVE CATSUPS, AND THE MOST FREQUENT CAUSES OF INFERIORITY
Unfavorable Publicity on Preservatives
When the pure food movement first swept over this country the subject of preservatives got very wide publicity, and the sensational press fed the people up on the news that their food was being doctored with all sorts of chemicals. Tomato catsup came in for its share of this publicity, and the two preservatives most commonly used in catsup, namely, benzoate of soda and salicylic acid, were classed among the chemicals that were ruining our stomachs.
Although salicylic acid has been ruled out, benzoate of soda is still being used to some extent. The great bulk of the catsup now being manufactured, however, is made without preservative, because packers realize that a good percentage of the public became prejudiced against preservatives of all sorts during the pure food agitation, and a great many are still prejudiced against even so mild and harmless a preservative as benzoate of soda. There are those who still maintain that this preservative is or may be harmful when used to the extent of one-tenth of one per cent, which is the permissible amount according to the federal law; however, the Remsen board appointed by President Roosevelt to decide the benzoate question unanimously decided that when benzoate of soda is used in condiments to the extent of one-tenth of one per cent it is perfectly harmless. It was even found to be perfectly harmless in much larger proportions.
These facts, however, have never reached the masses, most of whom never heard of the Remsen board, and even if they had, a great many people would still remain prejudiced. Most packers think, therefore, that it is best to play safe and make their catsup without chemical preservative, relying solely upon sterilization to keep their product from spoiling up to the time the bottle is opened, and upon so called “natural” preservatives to keep it from fermenting after the cork is drawn.
“Natural” Preservatives
That these “natural” preservatives, when present in large quantity, as they sometimes are, may be more harmful to the stomach than a minute quantity of benzoate of soda, is surely a reasonable supposition. I have known of people getting sick directly after a meal by eating a good deal of catsup of high acidity on a steak and drinking milk along with it. At least the sickness was attributed to this combination, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable. A high acetic acid acidity will keep catsup as well or better than ⅒th of 1% of sodium benzoate will. There are catsups on the market made “without preservative” that would probably never ferment, even if exposed to the air for a year, because they contain so much acetic acid. The raw acetic acid is, of course, not permitted to be used, but a very strong distilled vinegar is used containing about 10% of acetic acid.
The “natural” preservatives of catsup are the vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices. The vinegar probably exerts 80% of the preserving property, the sugar about 10% and the salt and spices together 10%. The sugar would have much greater preserving properties if it was present in higher concentration as in preserves or jelly. It is doubtful if the preservative properties of sugar are very great when it is only present to the extent of about 10 or 15%, and the product is of a liquid nature like catsup.