Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-19
FOLSOM IN THE FOOD.
Alarming Prevalence OF Aduiterstsos--Evsu
Medicines Are Faisined.

Medicines Are Faisi1ed.
GONE VERY STARTLING FACTS WHICH
~ have bearing on the present agitation in
favor Of pure food have been gathered by the
Department Of Agriculture.
Glucose. il appears, is the greatest OF all
aduiterants. It is used for making cheap
candies, sugars. jellies and sirups. An idea Of
the extent 10 which it is employed 10 OBJ
tanned from the fact that ten pounds Of IL are
manufactured annually in the United States for
every man. woman and child. II is prepared
from corn. Most of the less expensive jellies
in the market are purely artificial products.
composed Of gelatfne. sugar, cochineal and
havoring extracts. More costly iellies of
various fruits are simply apple jelly colored
ana navored. Apple sauce is pumpkin boiled
in cider.
CHEAP CONFECTIONERY AND ITaroRs.
is said that cheap confectionery and liquors
are 'he articles most iniuriously adultered.
candy commonly contains much fusei oil and
otner poisons. Strawberry ice cream, plate
OF II. often contains more fusel oil than five
glasses OF poor whisky. Il is colored with red
aniline dye. Licorice drops are usually made
OUT oil candy factory sveepincs. Wine is fire.
quently nothing but water. With a percentage
OF crude alcohol and aniline colorinc Rrauiy
beet root refneries coiored with burnt sugar
navored with oil OF coguac and given an agree
able woody taste with little catechu Among
other adulterants Of liquors are vitriol. opium,
alum, copperss. log wood and sugar Of lead.
ARTIFICIAL COFFEE.
Some package coffees are made Of peas. rye.
roasted and ground. almond shells treated
with molasses. beans. acorns and chicory.
There are twenty different substances known
n thxst ra. De
these are the artificial beans made ont OF
potato starch and other materials which are
imported from Germany in large quantities
for mixing with the real article. They can be
detected by the fact that they will sjnk in
water, whereas true coffee beans will float
Shriveled coffee beans are commonly soaked in
salt water to make them look plump. ID is
usual to extract the essential oils from coffee
beans before selling the latter as coffee, the
essences being manufactured separately into
| extracts.
FRArDrLrSr SPICES
Spices Of all kinds afford an inviting field for
the exercise of fraudulent arts. They are
almost always sold in the form Of a fine pow
der, and any cheap substance serves az sub
sutute Peas and beans are largely employed
Tor this purpose. In fact the production OF So
called spice mixtures" or pepper dust q"
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 yariousiy known as Up. ID. pep
per. II. ginger, Up. ID. cloves" and SO on
They are solo by the barrel and are made 70
resemble IN appearance the genuine articles
tney represent. the merchant having il left to
| his discretion how much of the real stuff he
will add in each case for favorlng.
SOME OF THE INGREDrESrs.
Almost any sort of refuse serves very well as
| material for these preparations. For black
pepper the producer commonly uses roaste 4
| ships bread, mustard husks. corn neal. lipseea
| meal, wheat, rice and particularly eocoanut
| shells Pure ginger is made out Of corn me 4
by simply adding red pepper and salt Aispice
| is composed of mustard husks. cracker lust
and corn. Mace is mostly -four. cornmeal and
buckwheat Cayenne pepper is chiefly ground
rice, flour and red lead. Mustard is -four
ana cayenne pepper. Whatever sub
stances may DO employed. roasting serves
to give them the proper color. while sitting
| OF finely powdered charcoal will transform corn
meal into black pepper at short notice. One
| nrm IN New York city puts on the market 5 900
! pounds OF ground cocoanut shells yearly for
purposes OF sduiteratiou, advertising to supply
| dealers with all necessary information Tor
| spice manufacturing"
The flower buds OF the Glove tree known
commercially as Cloves are frauduently sub
| jected before they are sold TO a process by
which their volatile oil is removed. the latter
ever, the thrifty dealer does not permit the
cloves to leave his hands until he has added to
| them Glove stems, allspice aud burnt nut shells
what Is known As essence of coffee consists
mostly OF burnt molasses- Many of the fayorlny
extracts used In the household are mlxtures of
| acids and other drugs. 1hey are all more or
less harmful Cream of tartar often contains
as much as per cent OF oxalic acid Cider vim
egar is apt to be corn vinegar with salphuYic
acid added Ii contains none Of the little GELS
which are found in good vinegar, because they
cannot live in it.
When one buys tea for 81 a pound one is
very likely to pay in reality 80 a pound, be-
cause half OF the quantity is currant leaves
Indigo. soapstone and china clay are among
other usual ingredients of tea. Sage is often
potato starch. Grated horseradish is some
times composed OF tnrnlps. Bologna "A Usage
may be putrid meat of unidentified aalsaals
colored with saltpetre and Venetian red
Flour Is frequently weighted with soap
stone. Sweetened water, snarpened with citric
and tartaric acids and Favored with oil
OF orange skin, makes orange cider Ii costs
10 cents gallon to make and sells for - 80 m
gallon. Maple sugar may be glucose aaa SO
may honey. Real honey can be distinguished
under the microscope by the pollen grains it
contains. they have wonderfully beautiful
forms and the very flowers from which the
honey Las been obtained can be identified by
the various exquisite shapes Of these wing
germs
1t is estimated that $50. ZOO. 900 worth Ct
fraudulent food products mixed with good
articles or sold In place OF them annually in the
United States. This amount rs stoleu from the
people by men who coin fortunes by cheating
the consumers Incidentally the products of
the farm are cheapered and the producers
robbed ss we'll