Until about 1902, legal food preservatives included chemicals like formaldehyde, borax and copper sulfate.

在1902年以前合法的食品添加剂还包括甲醛，硼砂和硫酸铜。

Before the industrial era, salt was the most common and effective food preservative.

在工业时代之前，盐是最常见、最有效的食品防腐剂。

No, nor are there with most food preservatives.

这倒没有，但大多数食品防腐剂也没有。

The spices found there, which were used as seasonings, food preservatives, and aphrodisiacs, were worth many times their weight in gold.

在那里发现的香料被用作调味品、食品防腐剂和壮阳药，其价值是黄金的许多倍。

This pattern was set in 1879 when a chemist called Constantin Fahlberg was working with coal tar derivatives at Johns Hopkins University in the hope of discovering a new food preservative.

这一规律最早可追溯到 1879 年，当时一位名叫康斯坦丁·法尔贝格的化学家在约翰·霍普金斯大学研究煤焦油衍生物，希望发现一种新的食品防腐剂。

Their studies helped determine that while compounds like borax, hydrated sodium borate, are effective at cleaning, adding minerals to the soil, repealing pests and manufacturing glass and porcelain, they`re less savory as a food preservative.

他们的研究结果显示，尽管硼砂和水合硼酸钠这样的复合物在，清洁，给土壤增肥，驱除害虫，制作玻璃和陶瓷方面有很好的效果，但是作为食品添加剂还是不妥的。