The record-union., 1894-06-02
srly made it would not be especially dan.

erly made it would not be especially dan
gerous.
Liquid honey is freely adulterated. OF
five hundred samples bought in fifteen
cities, and examined at the Department
of Agriculture. nearly forty-fye per cent.
were found to be fraudulent. Mr.. Wiley
declares that there is no class of food pro-
ducers whose business is so seriously in
jured by adulteration of the product as
the bee-growers.
Ground coffee is much doctored. its
high price being a special incentive to
sophistication. Even the berries when
sold whole are not free from cheat, as they
are initiated both in the green and the
roasted state. Moistened chicory. starch.
peameal, caramel. molasses. etc.. in a
mass. is nodded into proper shape,
dried and mixed with the genuine ber-
ries.
Very little tea is found in this country
adulterated with foreign leaves. But use
of spent leaves, and the practice of
''facing' are frauds. In the latter case
leaves are treated with some preparation
to increase their weight and improve
their appearance. Salts of iron and cop
per are often used for this purpose. Cocoa
and chocolate are largely adulterated with
starch and sugar, harmless. but not less a
cheat, as they dispIace the meat of the
cocoa theobroDaa. So, too. the cheats ex-
tract the natural oil of the cocoa bean.
and its place is supplied by cheaper fat.
or left without an oil.
For canned food glass is the ideal ma
terial for caskets. But it is costly. Tin,
however, is acted on slowly. or not at all
by most organic acids found in fruits,
vegetables and meats. In Germany tin
for these uses is forbidden that contains
over two per cent. of lead, but in the
United States there is no restriction, and
it is in the lead used that the evil resides.
Mr.. Wiley says that he frequently finds
as much as twelve per cent. of lead in TIN
used for cans to carry food designed for
consumption, and this high percentage he
declares is alarming. Solder is dangerous
to health, but it often is found in cans in
lumps.a and protruding through joints into
the can.
Copper salts are used to impart bright
green color to canned peas and other
goods. The imported French peas, says
Mr.. Wiley, are uniformly colored with
copper. Fashionable cooks have not
been slow to learn that the addition of q
little copper to any vegetable which it is
desired to keep green when served, will
have that effect.
But these are only a few of the more
common forms of adulteration and cheat
in the food sold to US over counters. and
against which we have practically no
protection. Mr.. Wiley desires to excite
no undue alarm, and, while he thinks
these cheats in food should be stopped at
once, be adds that the greater part of
food which Americans eat is pure and
wholesome. But we ought to protect
ourselves against the lesser part which is
adulterated. For, even looked at in the
best light and most hopeful and unsensa-
tional manner, the adulueration of food
and drugs is bad enough. The remedy is
with the people; wise laws ordered by
them, faithfully administered, can put a
stop to the food frauds, the injury from
which falls more upon the poor, who
ought to be protected by such enactments
as, enforced, will effect the purpose.