Enclosed is a statement which I would appreciate being incorporated in the hearings on the bill, S. 438, by Senator Hollings, which I understand is to be considered the early part of next week. Thank you for your cooperation. WRP: pnd Yours sincerely, WM Roy W. R. Poage, Congressman STATEMENT OF HON. W. R. POAGE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS Mr. Poage. Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Senate Health Subcommittee, I appreciate this opportunity to offer my views on the bill before you, S. 438, by the distinguished Senator Hollings. H. R. 2166, was passed by the House on April 28, 1971. A similar measure, I endorse the proposal in these bills to simplify the present burdensome requirements in the Federal law. I must say I sympathize with those who have had to comply and enforce those unusual requirements. The real benefactors of the change, however, will be the many Americans who are eating away from home and who for one reason or another would like to be able to choose between margarine and butter. Both foods are good products of our agriculture and our food industry. As the original author of the present requirement, in section 407(C) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, it is my feeling that these proposals are fully in harmony with the original purpose, which was to notify patrons in a reasonable and suitable manner. When the House adopted my proposal removing the old margarine taxes in 1949, it thereby adopted what we then considered to be a useful notification rule, requiring notice by sign or menu and also identification of each serving. In the course of the debate the House further adopted an amendment allowing triangular shape to be one form of identifying each serving. The Senate and House Conference Committee then adopted this notification provision without comment. Twenty years have gone by. Margarine has become a principal table spread. It is understandable that restaurants should be using it increasingly. It seems both timely and appropriate to replace the double-notification requirement with a single notification one, as the bills before you propose. Thank you for your consideration. Senator KENNEDY. I would like to extend a special welcome this morning to our first witness, who is the principal sponsor of S. 438, the main bill under consideration this morning; he is the Honorable Ernest F. Hollings, of South Carolina. Senator Hollings began his public career in 1948, when he was elected to the South Carolina General Assembly. He was later elected Lieutenant Governor and in 1934 was elected Governor. During this part of his career, he was also appointed to the Hoover Commission; to the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations; and served as Chairman of the Regional Advisory Council on Nuclear Energy. As Governor, he instituted the Nuclear Space Commission and the Commission on Higher Education in South Carolina. Among his many honors he won a U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce award as one of Ten Outstanding Young Men of the United States in 1954. Elected to the Senate in 1966, Senator Hollings has already made a truly outstanding contribution to the Nation as a whole with the publication of his book, "The Case Against Hunger-A Demand for a National Policy." I might say that I want to dramatize the importance that he has placed on the whole area of nutrition and hunger. As he comes before the subcommittee and speaks about this particular question, he brings a great interest and understanding of the whole field. We want to welcome you, Senator. STATEMENT OF HON. ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA Senator HOLLINGS. Thank you. You may put down there that you and I are seated next to each other in the Senate Chamber and we have our offices across the hall and that will help me more on this bill. The fact of the matter is, in all candor, Mr. Chairman, and I will file my formal statement if I have your permission, that this is not really a margarine bill or butter bill. It comes about through leadership on the House side and my interest, along with Dr. Eugene Mayer and others, in nutrition and small restaurant operators in my own little State of South Carolina. The bill has passed the House twice. It came over last year and I introduced the Senate measure but there was not time enough to act upon it before the end of the Congress. I reintroduced it, and it is now before you. The State of New York recently repealed its Federal-type dual notice law for margarine. The Food and Drug Administration has had one heck of a time trying to administer the dual notice requirement on restaurants. Further the notification intended to a patron by the triangular shape has not proved effective at all. It hasn't caught on that the triangle indicates that it is margarine. Further, it is an unneeded expense to the owners. S. 438 is a consumer bill. It does not affect the margarine sold in the supermarkets. It will not increase the cost to consumers. It is just a small matter and a practical approach. I would be glad to try to answer any questions. We would appreciate the consideration of the committee for this matter, which has had quite an extensive hearing on the House side. I have incorporated the information from that hearing in my formal statement before you here this morning. Senator KENNEDY. We will include your statement in its entirety in the record. PREPARED STATEMENT BY HON. ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, a Mr. Chairman, I want to express my appreciation to you and to the subcommittee for taking time from your busy schedule to consider S. 438. At the beginning, let me make it clear that I favor a requirement that patrons be notified of the fact that a restaurant is serving yellow margarine. However, a cursory look at the present notice requirements discloses that they go beyond that which is necessary to adequately notify. In 1950, this Congress enacted the present law relating to colored margarine. That act removed the Federal tax on margarine and imposed in its stead certain labeling and packaging requirements as well as the restaurant notification requirements we are discussing this morning. This was a business protection law designed to reflect the congressional declaration of policy expressed in that law, namely: "The serving in public eating places of colored oleomargarine or colored margarine without clear identification as such... depresses the market and interstate commerce for butter and oleomargarine or margarine clearly identified * * *. In order to accomplish the goal of clear identification, Congress imposed a dual notification requirement. First, the use of margarine must be communicated through a prominently displayed notice or by a statement printed in the menu. Second, each separate serving must be labeled to identify it as margarine or it must be triangular in shape. Experience over the past 20 years has shown us the impropriety of these requirements. First, as the Food and Drug Administration has pointed out, the triangular shape of an individual serving is not an adequate identification that the serving is margarine. Second, we have learned that the requirement of two notices is not necessary to adequately inform patrons that margarine is being served in the eating place. We have also learned the dual notice requirement is difficult for the restaurant operator to comply with, and it is difficult for the Food and Drug Administration to enforce. A single notice is sufficient to carry out the intent of the 1950 act—to protect the market and interstate commerce for butter and clearly identified margarine-while facilitating compliance with and enforce ment of that act. The use of margarine has changed since the original requirements were imposed in 1950. Margarine has become the table spread in most use, averaging 11 pounds per person, compared to 5 pounds per person for butter. Further, many more people are being advised by their doctors to follow certain dietary rules, often including the use of 70-212 O 716 vegetable margarine. This increased use, combined with increases in the number of persons eating out and the number of restaurants in operation, have contributed to compliance and enforcement difficulties. For the information of the subcommittee, I would like to insert in the record a brief description regarding the importance of the nutritional role of margarine. THE NUTRITIONAL ROLE OF MARGARINE Much has been written on the nutritional role of margarine, by scientists and physicians as well as by nutritionists and food experts. A book on margarine is anticipated to be published this winter, and the following main points are drawn from the chapter on nutrition that has been prepared for that work. 1. Since before World War II, it has been generally recognized that, basically, margarine is the nutritional equivalent of good dairy butter. Both spreads contain about 3,300 calories or units of food energy per pound. Both have vitamin A; all table margarine is fortified to provide a minimum of 15,000 U.S.P. units of this vitamin per pound, while the quantity in butter is variable but is presumed to average about the same. 2. All margarine is $0 percent fat. The remainder of the product is chiefly skim milk, or, sometimes, water. The milk solids content of the skim milk amount to about 1.5% of the product weight. Most margarines are salted; the salt is from 2 to 3 percent of the product weight. In all these respects margarine and butter are generally alike. 3. Margarine may be composed of one or more vegetable oils brought together to make up the fat content. Most margarines use nothing but vegetable oils, the leading one by far being refined soybean oil. Second comes corn oil and third is cottonseed oil. Such margarines are made under the Food and Drug Administration's Standard for margarine. Some margarines are made in part or wholly with animal fats, usually pure lard. These are made under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Standard for margarine. Butter, of course, has its fat content composed entirely of milkfat, an animal fat. 4. Margarine comes in a variety of types, and it can be "designed" to offer a range of nutritional or other characteristics. Most margarine is the plastic, vegetable oil product familiar to consumers. There are however, margarines that are made to be all-vegetable (vegetarian), kosher, low-salt, and high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (the latter are sometimes called "special margarines" and may feature corn oil and safflower oil as well as soybean oil). All vegetable oils margarines offer a higher level of polyunsaturated fatty acids than does butter, and some margarines have a relatively high level of these substances, the leading one being linoleic acid. 5. Some margarines also fortify with vitamin D, usually to provide a minimum of 2,000 U.S.P. units per pound. Vegetable oils margalines also contain some vitamin E, which is found in the oils. Section 407 (c) does cover intrastate as well as interstate sales but its requirements are in addition to the State law. Looking at State laws, the majority of States require only one notice, while the 14 States which still require dual notice took this requirement from the 1950 Federal law. I think it is significant that the State of New York, an important dairy State, recently has repealed its Federal-type dual notice law, substituting in its place a single notification. For the information of the subcommittee I would like to insert in the record a recent chart showing the various State laws concerning use of margarine in public eating places. |