Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-07-16
AouLTERATsp SPICES.
How Pepper. Cloves and Ginger Are Do
tored BY Dish 1nest Dealers.

How Pepper. Cloves and Ginger Are Doc-
tored By Dish 1nest Dealers.
Adulteration has become an art in
which the knowledge of science and the
ingenuity of trade are freely exercised
profit by adding to them inferior or
spurious articles, or by taking from
them one or more of their constituents.
The objects of adulterations are to in
crease the bulk or weight of the article,
to improve it's appearance, to give it
false strength and to rob it of its most
valuable constituents.
People know so little about spice that
it can be adulterated with very slight
chance of discovery. An expert, how
ever, can tell at once. The head of the
spice department of grocery firm said:
ITO be sure of adulteration one needs
only to look at the price lists of certain
firms which sell spices. The price of
ground spice is often less than that of
the unground article, which is absurd
on its face. This means that the ground
spice has been heavily adulterated with
some cheap material Some go so far as
to advertise adulterated goods and evade
the law-by calling them compounds.
BLACK pepper is adulterated with a
substance called pepper dust made from
cocoanut shells and also with buck
wheat hulls, charcoal, white meal
and mustard bran. Cocoannt shells,
when ground up very fine,
are used very generally as an
adulterant of spices, as there is no taste
to interfere with the flavor of the spice
Arl
are source of profit to millers, as they
are worth two and one-half cents per
pound for adulterating purposes. The
charcoal gives black appearance to the
pepper"
Put sample of the best Malaga pep
per beside poor quality of black pep
per and the Malaga pepper can readily
be distinguished because of its lighter
color. Mix some white meal with the
common pepper and it becomes so like
the best pepper that it can hardly be
told apart, it not only adulterates the
pepper, but to all appearances improves
its quality.
White pepper is adulterated with
white meal, terra alba and rice -four.
Terra alba is fine marble dust, and
enormous quantities are exported from
Italy for purposes of adulteration.
Gypsum, sand, starch, mustard, husks
and various kinds of meal are also used
for adulterating pepper, but not to so
great an extent as the things mentioned.
Cayenne pepper is adulterated with
white meal, venetian red and salt, the
three being ground together. The salt
gives brighter color to the red, which
is itself a poisonous article. This doc
toring is practiced on African pepper,
dull red pepper, worth only eight
cents pound, in order to bring it
up to the brilliant color of Natal pep
per, worth thirty cents a pound. The
fraudulent article can be detected by
placing small quantity on a sheet of
white paper and rubbing it with the
finger. The venetian red will make red
marks on the paper
Ginger is adulterated with meal, rice
flour, starch, cayenne pepper and
manila rope. Ginger root has a very
fine hair-like fiber running through it
and this is found in the ground article.
Country people will not buy it unless
they see the fibers, and bits of manila
rope are used to take their place in the
false article. The cayenne pepper makes
the taste sharper. A drop of ammonia
will expose this compound by turning it
red. Chrome yellow, poisonous sub
stance, is sometimes used for colorinp.
Cloves are adulterated with Glove
stems worth two cents pound. These
Glove stems are the little green twigs
from which the cloves are plucked.
Cloves are also adulterated with pepper
| dust. and allSpice is also treatad in tba
same way.
Considerable ingenuity is shown in
adulterating cinnamon and nutmeg.
Old crackers or flour are baked brown
in an oven and ground up fine, and this
Is mixed with the ground cinnamon and
nutmeg. In adulterating mace, vene-
tian red is mixed with the cracker dust
Boston Commercial Bulletin.