Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-24
DANGEROUS FOOD ENUMERATION
The Fraudulent Use of Alum and Lime i'm Cheap Baking Powders.

| The Fraudulent Use of Alum and Lime i'm Cheap Baking Powders. If consumers prefer to buy an adulterated | article of food because it can be had at @ | lower price they undoubtedly have the right ! to do so, provided the adulterants are not of | 6 character injurious to health. If such ar | ticles are not falsely sold as pure and the | customer is not deceived as to their real | character, the transaction is not illegitimate. But the great danger in the traffic in adul- | terated food arises from the deception that is practiced by manufacturers usually chasing | such goods as pure. This Is almost invaria- \ bly, done when the adulterant is one that is \ injurious to health. For instance, manufac- ! turers of alum and lime baking powders not \ only fail to inform the public of the real character of their goods, but carefully con- ' ceal the fact that they are made from these | poisonous articles. Most of these nanufao- | turers also claim that their articles are pure \ and wholesome, while some go still further ' and proclaim boldly that they are cream of | tartar goods, or even the genuine Royal Ba- king Powder itself. No consumer will buy | alum baking powders knowingly, for it Is | well understood that they are detrimental to health. The sale of lime and alum baking \ powders as pure and wholesome articles Is, ! therefore, criminal, and it is satisfactory to notice that several persons engaged in such sale have already been brought to justice in the courts.
  tive in the pursuit of these dishonest arti- cles. The baking powders of several States have been carefully and critically examined. The officials are surprised at the large amount of lime and alum goods found. It is @ sug gestive fact that no baking powder except the Royal has been found without either lime or alum, and many contain both. Dr. Price's baking powder has been found to contain nearly twelve per cent. of lime; Cleveland's eleven per cent. of impurities; the phosphate powders over twelve per cent. of lime.
 The chief service of lime is to add weight. It is true that lime, when subjected to heat. gives off certain amount of carbonic acid gas, but quicklime is left-a caustie of most powerful nature. A small quantity of dry lime upon the tongue, or in the eye, pro- duces painful effects; how much more seri- ous must these effects be on the delicate membranes of the stomach, intestines 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 Is said by physicians to be one of the causes of indi- gestion, dyspepsia and those painful diseases of the kidneys now so prevalent.
 Adulteration with lime is quite as much to be dreaded as with alum, which has hereto fore received the most emphatic oondemna- ton from food analysts, physicians and chemists, for the reason that, while alum may be partially dissolved by the heat of baking, it is impossible to destroy or change the nature of the lime so that the entire
 amount in the baking powder passes, with all its injurious properties, into the stomach. The large profits from the manufacture of
 lime and alum baking powders has placed many Of them in the market. They are to
 be found in the stock of almost every retail
 dealer, and are urged upon customers calling
 for baking powders upon all occasions Be
 cause of their well known detrimental char
 acter it is desirable that prompt means be
 taken to suppress their manufacture.
 Pure baking powders are one of the chief
 aids to the cook in preparing perfect and
 wholesome food. While those are to be ob-
 tained of well established reputation, like
 the Royal, of whose purity there has never
 been question, it is proper to avoid all oth-
 CTS.