St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-10
FOUND IN OUR FOOD.
Food Commissioner Ives Con-
tributes Some Interesting
Literature,
Showing What the Chemists.
Discover in the Food We /
Must Eat. s
Impure Lard Is Now the Big.
gest Fraud on the Local
Market.
Authorizations Are on the De.
crease, Showing the De-
partment's Work.

Paul, and Chemist Drew, of the Mime
apolis department. The period in
cluded in the report is from Dec. l, 1889,
to April 1, 1890; and says Mr.. Ives:
The inspection and analysis of the
dairy and food products upon the mar
ket has been vigorously prosecuted. The
results are such as to concluslvely prove
the benefits to the public resulting
from the laborS of the commission with
in the field included under the present
laws.
With reference to dairy products, while
some samples of milk are found which
fall below the legal standard. cases of
actual adulteratiOn are rare. The
samples of butter examined show that
while there are plenty of samples OF poor
| butter to be found. none OF the
| butter substitutes are encountered upon
| our markets. The samples of cheese
also prove to be uniformly pure and
free from foreign fats.
Baking Powder.
The statement has been repeatedly
made that the law relative to the sale
of alum baking powders was to ali in
| tents and purposes a dead letter, and
| that since no prosecutions have been
made under its provisions, it is totally
| without effect.
The aim and intent of the law was to
secure to purchasers their right to a
| knowledge of what they were buying,
| and to thus enable them to protect
| themselves from misrepresentation and
fraud. To this end 1t was prescribed
that all alum baking powders state upon
their label "This baking powder con-
tains alum" A conformity with this
law is all that the dairy and food COM
mission seek to secure, and that their
laborS are proving successful is shown by
| the following statement taken from the
report of DR.. Drew: "Since the publ
cation of the former report there have
| been found 401 lots of'alum baking pow
| ders on sale, of which 325 lots, or 81 per
| cent. have been found to be properly
labeled. while only rs lots, or 10 per
! cent were without such distinguishing,
mark. That such large proportion of
| the alum powders of the market, as
found upon the shelves of the retailer.
| should be thus labeled in accordance
with the law which became operative
| only eight months ago, is surely a
/ source of qualification to those having
| the enforcement of the law in charge,
| and plainly shows the wisdom of the.
/ methods employed in effectlng such en-
| forcement."
| Vinegar.
| A large number of samples of vinegar.
have been examined and are reported
upon by the chemists. When the show,
| ing of the present is compared with
| that of former reports it becomes evil
| dent that the amount of vinegar which
is manufactured and sold at wholesale.
| which confirms in character and
| strength with the legal requirements, is
very largely increased, and that manu-
| facturers and wholesale dealers as a
whole are endeavoring to supply an
article which will pass inspection.
| 1t becomes equally evident that, as
shown in the present report, the re-
taller is largely responsible for the i'm
position and fraud which is still prac-
ticed. That such is the case is shown
by the fact reported by DR.. Drew that
Ofa a total of 163 colOred vinegarS
examined, ia were represented to the
inspectors to be cider vinegar, while
| only Al were found to be such upon
| analysis, and only 35 were found to be
! so branded upon the barrel. The law
requires that all manufacturers and
wholesale dealers in cider vinegar
should brand the same as such, and
that this provision is invariably carried
out there is no doubt. 1t is known to
all intelligent dealers that vinegars
otherwise branded do not -represent the
product of apple cider, and are not en-
| titled to be sold as such.
| In consequence of these facts, i'll the
| future report of the commission, the
| plan of publishing the names of the
| retailers who persist in palming OFF
| cOlored loW-Wine vinegarS as cider vine
garS will. be inaugurated, III order that
| the public may be informed as to who
the parties are who are thus imposing
upon their customers.
| Lard.
Some account of the origin and his
tory of the compound lard industry"
may promote all understanding of the
lard question. The manufacture of
''refined lard' was commenced in this
country forty years ago. 1t was pro-
! duced by expressing from lard por-
ton of the Oil, leaving what was known
as lard stearine. The latter was mixed
| with lard in such proportions as made a
sitter and firmer article, capable of re-
sisting high temperatures. 1t resumed
| it's rank at once in the commercial world
as refined lard" 1t contained nothing
but the fat of swine, and commanded a
| higher price than any other lard. The
manufacturers of this superior article,
| in many years of honorable trade,
earned well deserved reputation,
SO that their brand gave credit to
any commodity in the markets of the
! world. A few years ago. by the aid of
their chemist. they discovered that beef
stearine and cotton seed oil, mixed with
lard, would make a compound SO closely
resembling "refined LARD" in taste and
appearance that unskilled consumers
| would be unable to distinguish one from
the other; and. moreover, cOttonSeed
! oil being worth three cents a pound
less. and beef Stearine two cents a
pound less than lard, the cost of pro-
! duction was greatly leSSened, and the
| manufacturer enabled to put 1t on the
market at price enough below that of
the genuine article to drive the latter
from the market and yet have a wide.
margin of profit. a
After this discovery the compound
went into the markets of the world
under the name and brand of refined
lard, ''pure refined lard, "''c choice fam
ily lard" The producers omitted the,
| precaution of indicating somewhere on
their brand that this commodity was,
made of tallow. lard and oil, and was
NOT the superior article which formerly
bore the Justly celebrated brand, and in
consequence consumers continued to
buy the brand without suggestion
that, though the stamp had preserved
its identity, the goods had entirely lost
theirs. Thus the credit given by fair
name to a false commodity, together
with its cheapness, have enabled this
Limitation compound" to outrun ''h0n-
est lard,'' in their race for the tables of
consumers until 320,000,000 pounds OF
the mixture are annually placed upon
the market against $50, 0O0, 600 pounds of
pure lard. Before the introduction of
'.compound lard'' the annual prodnc-
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