The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-09-07
FOOD FRAUDS.
| THE SHAMEFUL USE OF LINE AND ALUM
IN CHEAP RAKING POWDERS

THE SHAMEFUL USE OF LINE AND ALUM
IN CHEAP BAKING POWDERS.
| Many food frauds. such as cbicory cot
fee or watered milk. although they are a
swindle in commercial sense, are often
| tolerated because they do not particularly
effect the health of. the consumer; but
when an article like baking powder, that
enters largely into the food of every fam
lily, and is relied upon for the healthful
preparation of almost every meal, is so
made as TO carry highly injurious, if not
| rankly poisonous, elements into the bread
| to the eminent danger of the entire cons
munity, it is the duty of the press to de-
nounce the practice in the most emphatic
terms
Among recent important discoveries by
the food analysts is that by Prof. Mott,
the y. s. government chemist, of large
| amounts of lime and alum in the cheap
baking powders These are, one the most
dangerous, and the other the most useless,
adulteranls yet found in the low>grade,
inferior baking powders 1t is u startling
| fact that of over one hundred different
| brands of baking powder SO far analysed,
| comprising all those sold in this vicinity,
not one of them, with the single excep>
ton of the Royal Baking Powder was
found free from both lime and alum
The chi,f service of lime is to add weight.
IL is true that lime. when subject to heat,
gives off certain amount of carbonic
acid gas, but quick lime Is left-s
tS1a CT 10 rnuarflI but 10 INV
tanners TO cat the hair from hides of ami
mails, and in dissectiDg rooms To more
quickly rot the flesh from the bones of
dead subjects. A small quantity Of dry
lime upon the tongue, or in the eye, pro-
duccs painful effects; how much more
serious must the ELECTS be upon The deli
cate membranes of the stomach, iuIeliines
and kidneys, more particularly of infants
and children, and especially when the
lime is taken into the system day after
day. and with almost every meal. This
ia said by physicians to be one of the chief
causes of indigestion. dyspepsia, aud
those painful diseases of the kidneys now
SO prevalent Instances of the most seri
ous affection of the latter organs from
uliuhiuS lttHt WATTS lbhuu III ftiitt st
tons of the west are noted in every ncdA
al journal.
AdulteTatiOn with lime is quite AS much
dreaded AS with alum, which has hereto.
fore received the most ,mphatIc condem-
nation from every food analyst, physician
and chemist, for the reason that, while
alum is probably partially dissolved and
passed off in gas by the heat of baking.
ii is impossible TO destroy or change the
nature of the lime in any degree, so that
the entire amount in the baking powder
passes, with all its injurious properties,
into the stomach. When we state that
the chemists have found twelve per cent
or ont-1iehth of the entire weight Of some
samples of baking powder Snalyzcd TO he
lime, the wickednesS of the adulttrtinn
will be fully apparent
Pure baking powders are one of the
chief aids TO the cook in preparing per-
feet and wholesome food White those
arc to he obtained of weiles;abIishcd re.
putation. like the Royal. Of whose purity
there has never been aud cannot be Il
question, 1t is proper to avoid all others