The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-22
MOST FOOD IS PURE.
Elaborate Experiments by the Agricul.
 tural Station.

The first of the annual reports on the | adulteratlon of food, prepared by the | Connecticut Agricultural Experiment station, under the provisions of chapter S5, of the General Statutes, approved June 6, 1895, has just been issued It contains a mass of information bearing upon the subject, and the results of a | large number of analyses of commodi- ties made at the station.
 Altogether, S49 articles of food, of thirteen different kinds, were subjected to a critical examination, and with the exception of Martius' yellow, found in minute quantities in certain kinds of mustard no poisonous adulterants were found, a fact, which upon the whole, speaks well of the purity of | Connecticut products.
 | Instances, however, of less serious adulteration, such as the mixing or packing of substances to reduce the quality or strength of the article, but substitution, in whole or in part, of any inferior substances or the abstraction of any valuable essential constituent. all of which come within the meaning of the law, have been frequent. Other means of adulteration which have been detected are the imitation of an article, and the sale of it under the name of another article, the coloring of an arti- cle to conceal damage, and combining it with diseased and putrid animal or vegetable substances.
 During the past year authorized agents of the station have visited forty towns and villages in the state for the purpose of purchasing articles of food l liable to, or suspected of adulteration. The articles purchased were maple syr- up, maple sugar, syrup, cane sugar, lard and lard substitutes, pepper, mus tard, cream of tartar, cereal foods, eof- l fee, milk, cheese and miscellaneous products.
 l In collecting these samples no effort has been made to select places in which it might be supposed that adulterated I goods would be most abundant, but it was rather sought to get as many dif- ferent brands of each article as was l possible. To this end the agents pur- chased from fancy groceries, as well as from the cheaper places, which sup ply the poorer part of the population.
 The state having already specially provided for the inspection of butter, molasses and vinegar by a dairy com missioner and his deputy, inspection of these three food products by the sta tion Is uncalled for.
 In every case where certain proof of adulteration was found, the facts, as required by the law have been forth | with transmitted to a grand juror or other prosecuting officers of the town or borough where the adulterated food products were sold.
 Most of the analyses were made and the reports prepared by Andrew l.. Winton son of the late A. L. Winton, of Bridgeport.
 l A number of the adulterated articles were found in the grocery stores of | Bridgeport, but it was not shown that ! the impurities were added by the sell CTS, or even that they were aware of their existence, facts which 1t Is neces- sary to establish, under the provisions of the law, in order to ensure prosecu- tion
 The tests for impurity in maple syrup are not yet sufficiently developed to de- 1 tect all adulteration. No serious adulterations were found in any of the specimens of strained honey
 None of the ingredients customarily used to adulterate lard is considered to be at all injurious to health, but cotton seed oil and stearine are largely used to cheapen it's production.
 l Pepper is usually adulterated more with view to coloring and increasing the bulk than from any other motive The common adulterants are bran and grain hulls, nutshells, sawdust, olive l and rape seed cake and terra a1bn. Cayenne and mustard are sometimes added to reinforce the pungency. Pep per is probably the most extensively adulterated of all food products. In the abstract of the one hundred and seven samples of pepper examined at the station, sixty-four samples were probably pure pepper, twelve were suspected of adulteration and thirty one were certainly adulterated.
 Mustard is commonly adulterate1 | with starchy matter, lime, gypsum CT terra alba, to increase the bulk. Mar tius, yellow and tumeric are used to give artificial coloring. The Martins yellow is objectionable as it is distiact- ly poisonous. ss
 | In recapitulating the analyses of cof- fee the report says: Tt appears that most of5the unground coffee for sale is pure, although eleven samples were purchased which were found to contain one or more of the following adulter- ants in quantities ranging from twelve to forty-two per cent; crushed reas. imitation coffee (noulded from starchy materially and chicory. Eighty-nine per cent. of the ground coffee found ( n sale was grossly adulterated. The ad- ulterants detected were peas, ''imita- tion coffee,'' pellets" (pea hulls and starch matter made into granulns) wheat, rye and chicory. Only two samples of pure coffee sold in bulk were found on sale .'t4
 Sixty eight samples of cream of tar tar were bought in bulk from retail grocers in different parts of the state. l Twentyfour of these were variously adulterated. some of them contailing no cream of tartar at all
 Eight hundred and forty-eight sam pies of the various commodities named | were purchased in the state.
 Of these 570 were pure "A were doubt full and 254 were undoubtedly adultara- | ted within the meaning of the act.