The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-05-12
FOOD ADULIERAT TON.
ALARMING PREVALENCE {
POISONED EDIBLES.
Even the Medicines We Take Have Been
Tempered With Some Facts
Gathered by the Depart
ment of Agriculture. Ill

Glucose. it appears, is the greatest
OF all adulterants. It is used for
making cheap candies sugars jellies
and syrups. An idea of the extent to
which it is employed is obtained from
the fact that ten pounds of it are man
ufactured annually IN the United
States for every man, woman and
child. 1t is prepared from corn.
Most OF the less expensive jellies in
the market are purely artificial pro-
ducts, states the Washington STAR COM
posed OF gelatine sugar. cochineal and
favoring extracts. More costly iellies
OF various fruits are simply apple ielly
colored and favored. Apple sauce is
pumpkin boiled in cider
1t is said that cheap confectionery
and liquors are the articles most in
Juriously adulterated. Candy com
monty contains much fusel oil and
other poisons Strawberry ice cream,
plate of it. often contains more fusel
OIL than five glasses of poor whisky.
1t is colored with red aniline dive
Licorice drops are usually made out
OF candy factory sweepings. Wine is
frequently nothing but water, with a
percentage of crude alcohol and ami
line coloring. Brandy is rectifed
alcohol from grain or the refuse of
heet-root refineries. colored with
burnt sugar favored with oil of cognac
and given an agreeable woody taste
with little catechu. Among other
adulterants of liquors are vitriol
opium, alum, copperas, log wood and
sugar of lead.
Some packages of coffee are made
OF peas, rye roasted and ground,
almond shells treated with molasses
beans. acorns and chicory. There
are twenty different substances known
to the trade as ''coffee substitutes. "
Among these are the artificial beans
made out OF potato starch and other
materials which are imported from
Germany in large quantities for mix
Ing with the real article. They can
be detected by the fact that they will
sink in water, whereas true coffee
beans will float Shriveled coffee
beans are commonly soaked in salt
water to make them look plump. Il
is usual to extract the essential oils
from coffee beans before selling the
the latter as coffee the essences being
manufactured separately into
extracts.
Spices of all kinds afford an INVITING
field for the exercise of fraudulent
arts They are almost always sold
in the form of fine powder, and anv
cheap substance serves as substitute
Peas and beans are largely EMPLOYED
for this purpose. In fact the produc
ton OF so-called spice mixtures" or
pepper dust y from which any kind
of spice can be readily manufactured
by the retail grocer. has grown to be
an Important branch OF industry.
These products are variously known
as p. D. pepper, - p. D. ginger"
p. D. cloves. and so on. They are
sold by the barrel, and are made to
resemble in appearance the genuine
articles they represent the merchant
having it left to his discretion how
much of the real stuff he will add in
each case for favoring.
Almost any sort Of refuse serves
very well as material for these pro-
parations. For black pepper the pro-
Queer commonly uses roasted ship's
bread, mustard husks corn meal, lin
seed meal wheat rice, and particu-
larly cocoanut shells. Pure ginger is
made out of corn-meal by simply
adding red pepper and salt. Allspice
is composed of mustard husks cracker
dust and corn. Mace is mostly -four
corn meal and buckwheat. Cayenne
pepper Is chiefly ground r1ce flour
and red lead. Mustard is -four and
cayenne pepper. Whatever substances
may be employed. roasting serves to
give them the proper color. while a
sitting of finely powdered charcoal
will transform corn meal into black
pepper at short notice. One firm in
New York city puts on the market
5. 600 pounds of ground cocoanut
shells yearly for purposes of adultera-
ton. advertising to supply dealers
with ''all necessary information for
spice manufacturing
The flower buds of the Glove tree,
hAo"A SohAAhOAS ie1Aly DIS 'ClOV0S, are
fraudulently subject before thew ara
sold to a process by which their vola-
tile oil is removed the latter being
marketed as essence of Cloves" How
ever, the thrifty dealer does not per-
nit the cloves to leave his hands un-
til he has added to them Glove stems
allspice and burnt nut shells. What
is known as essence of coffee" con-
sists mostly of burnt molasses. MANY
OF the 1avoring extracts used in the
household are made up of acids and
other drugs. They are all more or
less harmful. Cream of tartar often
contains as much as per cent of
oxalic acid Cider vinegar is apt to
be corn vinegar with sulphuric acid
added. 1t contains none of the little
cells which are found in good vinegar
because they cannot live in it.
When one buys tea for 81 pound
one is very likely to pay in reality 50
a pound. because half of the quantity
is currant leaves. Indigo, soapstone
and china clay are among other usual
ingredients of tea. Sage is often po-
tato starch. Grated horseradish is
49,, /. = H,..