River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1897-07-22
AduIteration of Food Stuffs.

Your pepper is half peas (Ps),
referring to the letters composing the
word pepper, is joke as innocent
as it is obvious. When it oc-
ours to you, however, that the peas
are really in the pepper after eli, the
joke loses much of its mirth. To dis
cover, besides, that nearly all COM
mercial foods and spices are very
generally adulterated, often cheaper
ed in quality, by deleterious ingredi-
ents, arouses your serious concern
The whole business is a fraud, and
should be suppressed by stringent
laws with severe penalties.
Let us consider one article largely
used in the United States and OBJ
tanned exclusively by portation-
coffee. Perhaps the wide range of
prices at which it is retailed may give
some hint of the amount of adultera-
ton. These prices are familiar TO all,
and need not be particularized here.
1t will suffice TO notice that the price
of roasted coffee ranges from 10 to 40
cents pound, and that the market
quotation of green Rio in New York
is cents. Some items in the draft
OF the proposed new tariff bill are very
suggestive of coffee adulteration,
For instance tax of u cents pound
is imposed on 'dandelion root and
acorns prepared, and other articles
used as coffee. Another item that
has been ridiculed by free trade pa.
pers, that in which a tax of cents a
pound is placed on prepared chicory
is one that concerns the public to con.
slider 1t has been claimed that a
duty of cents pound on chicory is
virtually prohibition of its importa-
ton. The prohibition of this abOmi-
nable stuff used to adulterate coffee is
a cOnsummation to be wished for. II
people desire to purchase chicory,
dandelion roots and acorns, they
should have the right to do so, but nc
man should be allowed to sell the
worthless stuff under the fraudulent
guise of coffee.
We notice that the higher priced
coffees on sale are advertised as
Mocha and Java. Mocha coffee sells
in Alden, the port of expectation, at
one dollar a pound, and the Custom
House records of New York show
that only four bags have been import
ed into the United States in two
years, and these were consigned to
private families. 1t would appear
that the labels on packages marked
"Pure Mocha and Java" have an init
nation of pure falsehood.
People have almost universally re.
fused longer to buy ground coffee,
knowing that it is almost impossible
to secure pure coffee in this form
But few are aware of the extent To
which roasted coffee sold in the whole
berry is adulterated. As long as the
coffee berries appear of uniform size,
color and shape, people take it fol
granted that these berries are all
genuine coffee. The Connecticut
Yankees who were accused of placing
on sale wooden nutmegs and bass
wood hams are ridiculed as potent
| shams, but the genius of the counter
feiter is made profitable in manipulat.
ing dandelion root, acorns, and chic
cory root into the shape Of the coffee
berry. These, being roasted and pre-
pared, are intermixed with the genu
inc coffee berry, frequently to such an
extent as to form one-third of the
bulk OF the compound. Other sub
stances are sometimes used in the
adulteration, but probably chicory i:
the most common adulterant be
cause it is Of a nature to admit Of the
transformation most readily, and i:
less easily detected by the casual OBJ
server. Dealers in coffee are aware Of
this adulteration, and they sell to the
trade with the understanding Of q
definite percentage of impurity
There are certain tests for ascertain.
| ing the genuineness Of the coffee Der
ry aud that Of the adulterant ingredi
snts 10 a mass Of the compound.
One popularity of the genuine cof
fee berry has not been initiated by
the manipulator Of the chicory an6
dandelion root. One unfailing indl
cation Of the genuine coffee bean is q
slight scale in the crease near the
"eye." Yankee invention has not YET
devised a machine so perfect as t.
place this scale. or its counterfeit, il
the crease of the chicory bean. The
consistence of the roasted coffee bear
is also different from the spurious
and LITTLE investigation will enable
any one &c determine whether the
article purchased is genuine or not.