The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-12-10
ADULTERATED SPICES.
Pepper, Cloves, Ginger, and Mustard All
Doctored for Gain.


The greater part of the spices sold
in this city are adulterated. Adultera.
ton has become an art in which the
knowledge of science and the ingenuity
of trade are freely exercised Pure
spices are debased for pecuniary profit
by adding to them inferior or spurious
articles, OF by taking from them one
or more of their constituents. The
objects of adulteration are to increase
the bulk or weight of the article, to
improve its appearance, to give il a
false strength, and to rob it of its most
valuable constituents. The practice
has grown with the competition of
trade, and in spite of severe laws pro-
hibiting it.
People know so little about spice
that it can be adulterated with very
slight chance of discovery. An expert,
however, can tell it at once. The head
of the spice department of grocery
firm in this city, says the New York
sun, said:
ITO be sure of adulteration, one
needs only to look at the price-lists
issued by firms which sell spices. The
price of ground spice is often less
than that of the unground article.
which is absurd on its face. Unground
pepper can not be sold for less than IA
cents a pound. and yet we find ground
pepper offered for 5 and 6 cents a
pound. Ground ginger is offered at
cents pound, while the unground is 8
cents. This means that the ground
spice has been heavily adulterated with
some cheap material. Some firms go
so far as to advertise adulterated
goods, and evade the law by calling
them compounds.
BLACK pepper is adulterated with a
substance called pepper dust, made
from cocoanut shells, and also with
buckwheat hulls, charcoal, white meal,
and mustard bran. Cocoanut shells,
when ground up very fine, are used very
generally as an adulterant of spices, as
there is no taste to interfere with the
flavor of the spice. Buckwheat hulls,
otherwise worthless, are a source OF
profit to millers, as they are worth "a
cents a pound for adulterating pur-
poses. The charcoal gives black ap-
pearance to the pepper
best Malaga pepper beside a poor
quality of black pepper. The Malaga
pepper could readily be distinguished
because of its lighter color. Mr.. Mil
Ter mixed some white meal with the
common pepper and it became so like
the best pepper that it could hardly be
told apart.
You see," he said, chat have not
only adultered the pepper, but | have,
to all appearances, improved its
quality"
White pepper is adulterated with
white meal, terra alba, and rice flour.
Terra alba is fine marble dust, and
enormous quantities are exported from
Italy for purposes of adulteration.
Gypsum, sand, starch, mustard, husks,
and various kinds of meal are also used
for adulterating pepper, but not to SO
great an extent as the things l have
mentioned. Cayenne pepper is adul-
terated with white meal, Venetian red,
and salt, the three being ground to.
gether. The salt gives a brighter color
TO the red, which is itself a poisonous
article. This doctoring is practiced on
African pepper, a dull red pepper,
worth only 8 cents pound, in order
to bring it up to the brilliant color OF
Natal pepper, worth 80 cents a pound.
The fraudulent article can be detecte !
by placing a small quantity on a sheet
of white paper and rubbing it with the
finger. The Venetian red will make
red marks on the paper.
Ginger is aduiterated with meal,
rice flour, starch, cayenne pepper, and
manila rope. Ginger root has very
fine, hair-like fiber running through it,
and this is found in the ground article.
Country people will not buy it unless
they see the tibers, and bits of manila
rope are used TO take their place in the
false article. The cayenne pepper
makes the taste sharper. A drop oil
ammonia will expose this compound
by turning it red. Chrome yellow, 6
poisonous substance, is sometimes
used for coloring.
"Cloves, worth 90 gents q pound are
adulterated with clove-stems worth 2
cents a pound. These clove-stems are
the little green twigs from which the
cloves are plucked. Cloves are also
adultered with pepper-dust, and all
spice is also treated in the same way.
Considerable ingenuity is shown in
adulterating cinnamon and nutmeg.
Old crackers or flour are baked brown
in an oven and ground up fine, and
this is mixed with the ground CHINA
mon and nutmeg. In adulterating
mace Venetian red is mixed with tie
cracker dust.
Mustard is adulterated with sage
flour, starch, rice flour, and wheat
-four, and colored with aniline color
ings. The fraud can readily be de-
tected, as the compound becomes blue
when treated with solution of iodine,
The common German and French mus
tard is made up of compound of
mustard, cracker dust, and cayenne
pepper, and is favored with sugar. oil,
and vinegar 10 suit the taste.
Another method of abusing cloves
is by extracting their essential oils.
This is done in Europe by boiling them,
and in this country by pressing out the
on.'