The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-11-24
FORMS OF ADULTERAT1ON.
How Various Articles of Food Are Made
Tempting to the Eye.

How Various Articles of Food Are Made
Tempting to the Eye.
From Food, Drugs and Drinks
The most universally colored article
is butter, and it may with great con-
fidence be asserted that there is hard
ly pound of butter sold at the pre-
sent time in this country which has
not been doctored, mostly by the aid
of a harmless vegetable coloring mat
ter-annatto-ip order to 1mpart to-
such butter rich golden color. But
ter naturally varies much in color, &C
cording to the season, the breed 9th
COW and mainly it's food; and it is but
rarely the natural butter possesses
the color to which the public is &C.
customed. The desire of those who in
troduced this admlxture was obvious
ly to make their produce appear rich
er and more enticing 10 the eye than
nature had intended. One after the
other the rest of the butter merchants
had to follow suit.
Milk is also generally colored by
the milkman. Here the object is
plain. Watered milk assumes, as
is we'll known, the tell-tale sky-blue
milk has been tempered with. To.
hide this the blue milk is again arti'
ficially provided by means of yell
low solution of color with a rich,
creamy appearances. To hide the
original fraud the second deception is
practiced.
Mustard, especially that which has
been adultera, ed with flour, which in
consequence also would look sickly
pale, is brought up to the original
color of genuine mustard by the ad-
dition of turmeric, and similar prac-
tice is beginning to be adopted in the
pepper trade.
Sausages, both meat and skin, are
dyed with aniline colors for the pur-
pose of hiding the color of unhealthy
or stale meat which may have been
used. Jams, especially plum jam,
are generally died with aniline colors,
and sugar confectionery is hardly
ever without such artificial dye. Ale
is darkened with burnt sugar, as also
are brandies and WHISTLES.
1t must be admitted that in by far
the majority of these cases the color
used is entirely harmless and has mo-
influence upon the health of the con-
sumner. Yet there are a number of
aniline colors which are positively
poisonous, even when pure. Such
colors are picric acid and it's salts,
martius yellow, safranine, methvien
blue, dinitrocresol and aurantia.
Others, unobjectionable in them
selves, become poisonous owing to
their mode of manufacture, which
leaves in the products poisonous i'm
purities, such'as arsenic (rarely), salts
of copper, tin or zinc. The manufac-
turer of sausages or jams has not the
least idea whether the colors he uses
may not belong to one or other of the
above, to which doubtless many
others could be added, and even if the
quantity or color consumed by one
individual may be exceedingly small
it is palpably evident that no such
manufacturer should have the right
to use such colors. Almost every
civilized country has passed legisla-
tive measures regulating the use Of
colOrs such as those referred to, but
England, the mother of all adultera-
tion acts, has done nothing, and has
in this, as in many other points con-
corning the sale of food and drink, re-
NAMED far behind most other nations,
even including the squabbling South
American Republics. \