The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-11-24
Flour AdulteratiOn.

sale in the stores, from the finest
patents to the lowest grades, is adul-
terated. Several years ago a we'll
known Georgian, since dead, Informed
the writer that he had for some time
been shipping kaolin to St. Louis,
and that he very strongly suspected
it was employed to adulteratc flour,
adding to the bulk as we'll as well as
to the weight. His suspicious were
afterwards confirmed by analysis, and
the facts had wide notoriety at the
time.
We have no doubt, however, that
kaolin is still used to adulterate -four,
but there are other forms of adulter-
alton. Many large -four mills have
corn meal plants attached to their ma
chinery. They use these plants for
the purpose of making corn -four
which is Spiked into the wheat
-four, thus adding to their profits.
An expert miller, familiar with the
whole scheme of adulteration, informs
us that the corn is crushed into meal
between iron rollers. This meal is
run through bolt and the corn -four
busted out. The meal is again
crushed and rebolted, and the opera
tion is performed several times until
all the corn flour is bolted out, and
then the residue is sacked and branded
"straight meal" and sold to the
Southern trade. This sort Of stuff is
the ordinary corn meal Of commerce,
and is not worth feeding to hog.
From all that can belsarned, South
ern buyers are in a particularly soft
and sappy condition when they 60 out
to purchase their provender. They
seem to prefer what may be termed
the offal of commerce in all lines.
Why this should be so is and always
must remain a mystery. By what
fatality of choice do the Southern
people insist on buying wheat flour
because it is white? They seem to
I>iudge it wholly by it's whiteness, aud
| buy it on that account, when the
merest tyro should know that the
whiteness of the -four is certain evil
dence of adulteration or inferiority.
Until quite recently the offal of the
glucose factories has been sold to the
hominy mills, where it was 'spiked"
into "hominy hearts, or into feed
meal; but now the glucose offal is
made into a, very fine white starch,
and is sold to the -four mills, which
use it for "spiking' all grades Of
flour, especially the lower grades.
These lower grades are enhanced in
whiteness and are thus fitted to suit
the delicate Southern palate.
| We have before us price list OF
the glucose offal, sent out by large
glucose factory in Chicago. Accom-
panying it is circular describing how
the ofal may be used to adulterate
-four. That our readers may be in
itiated into the mysteries of flour
adulteration, We print the circular in
| full.
obstruction as to How to Mix and
Handle Our Productive would ad-
wise substituting 10 per cent. in
patent, straight and clears, and 10
per cent. in the lower grades. With
this percentage good results arc OBJ
tanned in both bread and biscuits,
starch being natural product of both
wheat and corn. All that is necessary
or required, to mix and assimilate
thoroughly would be to feed the pow
dered starch into the finished product
of the mill, conveying the mixture
twenty or twenty-five feet: with this
amount of conveying the starch will
be thoroughly mixed with the flour.
1t is not necessary to feed the starch
through the bolts in any particular,
as the same is thoroughly pulverized
and double bolted, and kiln dried to a
very dry moisture percentage, whereas
| -four has minimum Of 13 and maxi
mum of 10, showing the keeping quail
ties in favor of starch.
"We would call your attention to
the fact that the germ, or the oily
substance, of corn is entirely ex-
tractcd, thereby assuring the starch
| from becoming yellow or fermenting.
which would be the case with corn
flour.
"ln using starch as a substitute,
especially in the lower grades, they
are brought out in color at least two
grades thereby, enabling the miller
also to obtain on this particular grade
from u to 30 cents per barrel with the
mixture than. without.
For all southern trades starch is
used very extensively, as all fours
are judged by their colors, enabling
the miller to produce whittier -four and
meet competition by using our pro-
duets. y
We call attention to the last para
graph of the foregoing, where an eS-
traordinary tribute is paid to southern
taste and judgment in the matter of
wheat flour. "All Hours, says the
merccless circular, are Judged by
their color in the south, and this is
the truth. The whitcr the flour, the
more it has been deadcned in the
grinding: and the more it has been
adulteratcd in the handling, the more
precious it is to the southern trade.
Now, as matter of fact, it should
be we'll known to southcrncrs that
pure and perfect wheat -four is never
as white as the -four of commerce. 1t
has a faint golden tinge or blush.
When it is perfectly white, something