St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-15
FOOD FRAUDS.
The Shameful Use of Lime and
Alum I'm Cheap Baking Powders.

The Shameful Use of Lime and
Alum i'm Cheap Baking Powders.
Many food frauds, such as chicory coffee
or watered milk, although they are a
swindle in commercial sense, are often
tolerated because they do not particularly
affect the health of the consumer; but
when an article like baking powder, that
enters largely into the food of every family,
and is relied upon for the healthful prepare
ton Of almost every meal, is so made as to
carry highly injurious, if not rankly
poisonous, elements into the bread to the
imminent danger of the entire community,
it is the duty of the press to denOunce the
practice in the most emphatic terms.
Among recent important discoveries by
the food analysts is that by Prof. Mott.
the United States 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, adulterantS yet found in the low
grade. inferior baking powders. 1t is a
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
exception of the Royal Baking Powder,
was found free from both lime and alum.
The chief service of lime is to add weight.
1t is true that lime, when subjected to
heat, gives off certain amount of carbonic
acid gas, but quick lime is left-a caustic
so powerful that it is used by tanners to
eat the hair from hides of animals, and
in dissectlng rooms to more quickly
rot the flesh from the bones OF dead sub
jects. A small quantity Of dry lime upon
the tongue, or in the eye, produces painful
effects; how much more serious must these
effects be upon the delicate membranes of
the stomach, intestnes and kidneys. more
particularly of infants and children, and
especially when the lime is taken into the
system day after day. and with almost
ever meal. This is said by physicians to
be one OF the chief causes of Indigestion,
dyspepsia, and those painful diseases of the
kidneys now so prevalent. Instances OF
the most serious affections of the latter Or
gans from drinking lime water found in
some sections of the West are noted in
every medical journal.
Adulteration with lime is quite as much
to be dreaded as with alum, which has here
tOfOre received the most emphatic cOndem-
nation from every food analyst, physician
and chemist, for the reason that, while alum
is PROBABLY partially dlSsOlVed anu paSseu
off in gas by the heat of baking, it is impos-
sible 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 10 per cent, or one eighth of the en-
tire weight of some samples of baking pow
der analysed, to be lime. the wickedness OF
the adulteration will be fully apparent.
Pure baking powders are one of the
chief aids to the cook in preparing perfect
and wholesome food. While those are tt
be obtained of we'll established reputation,
like the Royal, of whose purity there has
never been and cannot be question, it is
proper to avoid all others.