Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-09-14
FOOD FRAUDS.
The Shameful Use of Lime and Alum !
Cheap Baking Powders.

The Shameful Use Of Lime and Alum in
Cheap Baking Powders.
Many food frauds, such rs chiCOry coffee
or watcrcd milk, although they are Il swim
die in q commercial sense, are often tOler-
ated 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 healthy preparation
ofalmoSt every meal, isSO made rs to carry
highly injurious, if not mnkly poisonous,
clements into the bread to the imminent
danger ofthc entire community, it is the
duty of the press to dcnOuncc the practice
in the most emphatic terms.
Among recent important discoveries by
the food analysis is that by Prot. 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
4 startling fact that of one hundred differ
cnt brands of baking powders 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. n is true that lime, when
subjected to heat, gives of q certain
amount of carbOnic acid Gus, but a quick
lime is left-a Caustic so powerful that it
is USED by tanners tn eat the hair from
hides of animals, and in diSSecting 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, produces painful eff
cctS; how much more serious
must these effects be on the delicate mem
brancs of the stomach, inteStincS and kid
ncys, 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 is said by
physicians to be one OF the chief CAUSES OF
indigestion, dyspepsia, and most painful
diseases of the kidneys now so prevalent.
Instances of the most serious affections OF
the latter organs from drinking lime water
found in some sections of tho West are
noted in every medical journal.
ANulltldllOu VIII ullt ~ uullt ~ lluCll
to be dreaded Us with alum, which has
heretofore received the most emphatic
condemnation from every food analyst,
physician and chemist, for the reason that,
while alum is partially dissolved and
passed of in gas by the heat of baking, it
is impossible to destroy or change the ma
ture of the lime in any degree, so that
the entire amount in the banking pow
der passes, with all its iniuriOus properties,
into the STOMACH, When we state that
the chemists have found twelve per cent
or ono-eighth of the entire weight of some
samples OF baking powder 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 to
be obtained Of well-established reputation,
like the Royal, OF whose purity there has
never been and cannot he a question, it is
proper to avoid all Others.