Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-06
DO YOU EAT PICKLES?
If You Do the Following Will Be of
Great Interest to You.
RESULT OF CHEMICAL ANALYSES.
Some of the Adulterants Used in Pickles
and Catsup.
HOW TO DISCOVER IMPURE PRODUCTS


of thousands turn oysterward, when visions
OF tomato catsup and juicy bivalves force
themselves upon us, when the pickles, too,
an adjunct to these other tasty morsels, be-
gin to take the place of some of the sum-
mer acid fruit in our daily dietary-at this
particular season tomato catsup, vinegar
and pickles become timely topics.
To 20 to any one of the several catsup
manufactures in this city and see the tons
of tomatoes that are being received at this
season of the year, or little earlier, one
wonders where and by whom the great quan-
titles of catsup will be con sumed.
With view of ascertaining to what de-
gree this product was subject to adultera-
ton, samples of six brands or tomato catsup
were bought from retail dealers in this city,
and subjected to careful microscopical and
chemical analyses, with the following re-
| suits:
Salicylic acid was found in five samples.
| Coloring matters were found in five samples.
| Fungi or moulds found in four samples.
Arsenic ttraeesl found in one sample.
Sulphuric acid found in one sample.
WHY ADULTERANTs ARE USED.
With regard to the salicylic acid found,
it may be stated that it is almost univer-
| sally used by tomato catsup manufacturers
| for the purpose of cheaply preserving the
| catsup from iermentation-in other words,
to make it "keep." Almost every housewife
| who annually puts up a humber OF bottles of
excellent tomato catsup is much annoyed by
the certain tendency it has to terment either
| before the bottle is opened ior use or imme-
diately after. The manufacturer overcomes
the difficulty by adding salicylic acid to the
preparation. He also uses it to preserve the
large quantities of tomatoes which he buys
| when they are cheapest. The salicylic acid
enables him to make up sort of mash or
''pulp" that will keep until such time as
he may wish to prepare and bottle it. The
! catsup consumer will want TO know, if sali-
| cylic acid is injurious. 1t is certainly, when
partaken of in anything more than very
small doses not very frequently repeated.
| The person who takes a teaspoon
| iul of catsup containing sufficient
salicylic acid to preserve it, not
oftener than once a week, will not perhaps,
do himself any great injury; but the man
who is in the habit of consuming a table
! spoonful daily OF such a catsup will newt
| ably injure his stomach. The long con-
| tinued administration of salicylic acid or
its salts causes emaciaIion, OF wasting of
the tissues, and large quantities may cause
death.
The coloring matters found in five SAM
pies were cochineal, cochineal lake, aniline
red and some vegetable colors. Aniline
red, if pure, is not in anyway deleterious to
health when swallowed; but, as practical
| matter of fact, aniline colors often contain
! arsenic, and for this reason their use to
| color food stuffs is dangerous. Cochineal is
| in no way deleterious, and is not liable to
contain injurious impurities. But it is
| wrong in principle to color food stuffs at all.
| If an article is pure it ought to sell without
any dye. How anyone can imagine that
tomatoes could give such color to catsup,
as is possessed by this article, it is difficult
| to conceive.
DANGER IN THE CATSUP BEETLE.
The presence of fungi or moulds indicates
that the tomatoes had begun to fernent and
grow mouldy before the salIcylic acid was
added, which latter would of course stop
the growth of the fungus. With regard to
the effect OF the ingestion of this dead mould,
it is only necessary to state that number of
years ago an experimenter fou nd that when
rabbits were fed on mouldy bread their ears
sloughed of, deep ulcerations made their
appearance, and finally death resulted.
The traces of arsenic detected in one SAM
pie were probably derived from the aniliue
dye used to color the catsup. While the
quantity found was exceedingly small, yet
it must be remembered that arsenic is not
to be trifed with, and that, like all metals,
it accumulates in the system and even in
small doses, if kept up, may eventually pro-
duce dangerous symptoms. OF course the
presence of arsenic in the aforementioned
case, was entirely unknown to the maker OF
the catsup; he did not know that aniline
colors often contain arsenic.
The sulphuric acid found was probably
added to give an extra tartness to the cat
sup, without the use of vinegar, which latter
was entirely absent. Sulphuric acid OF ID
self is not injurious in small quantities and
we'll diluted, but it, too, often contains
arsenic.
With regard to the physiological effects of
catsup and pickles, it must be said that
when pure they are not of any value as
foods; but as relishes to add zest to the appe-
tite and thus indirectly favor digestion, and
also directly bv the stimulating effect of the
pepper they contain on the stomachal secret
ory apparatus, they are on the whole quite
beneficial. Of course the eating of pickles
between meals, or in large amounts at any
time, is in most cases very bad practice;
and a craving for this kind of thing is often
alcoholic stimulants.
A STARTLING STATEMENT.
Ten samples of domestic and foreign
pickles were examined, with the result of
finding impurities and adulteration in 80
per cent. This may seem rather startling.
and it will be queried whether cucumber
pickles can be made out of anything other
cucumbers. 1t has been stated on good au-
thority that certain vegetable marrows have
been fashioned into clever limitations OF
cucumber pickles; and turnips, too, have
been made to masquerade as pickles so sue
cessfulIy that it is said neither epicure nor
botanist could detect the fraud. However,
none of these spurious pickles were found
in this series OF analyses. The adultera-
tions referred to were chiefly in the vinegar,
while the impurities were in both vinegar and
pickles Pure cider vinegar is, or ought to
be. or 3 per cent solution of acetic acid
in water, with various e8tractive matters.
There are many different varieties of vine
gar. according to the source; thus in CON-
merce we have cider, wine. sugar, malt,
wood and beet vinegars. OF these the cider
and wine products, or what is. sold as such,
are the most commonly used. Each kind
of vinegar, if pure, has a decided color,
flavor and aroma, derived from the vegeta-
BILE from which it is prepared.
The examination of ten samples of pickles
from the general market, including an
ANALYSIS OF the vinegar containing them,
Welded the following results:
Copper present in two samples.
Suiphuric acid foil of viGriol) present in seven
samples.
Lead present in one sample.
Iron present in two samples.
Zinc present in one sample.
FATAL IGNORANCE.
The oonnar found in two samples was