The herald., 1897-11-11
Adulteration Of Honey

Adulteration of Honey
The matter Of food adulteration Is one
of tremendous Importance and COM
manding interest to all our people. All
such practice owes its very existence to
fraud and deception. Except that 1t Is
q cheat, 1t would never be engaged in
at all. But 1t Is often more than fraud,
for It is not infrequently a menace to
health and to life.
Commercial glucose is cheap artifl-
cial product that Is used very largely
to adulterate other higher-priced and
more wholesome sugars. 1t Is often
called corn or starch glucose or sugar.
az 1t is made by treating the starch of
corn with sulphuric acid, which trans
forms 1t to sugar AS 1t can be made
for 3 or cents per pound 1t becomes very
profitable to mix 1t with honey or cane
sugar, when 1t Is often sold for double
its cost under the fraudulent guise of
what It is not.
The adulteration of honey has been
carried on to a very large extent in al
most every great city Of the United
States. Comb honey is so exquisite in
its character and make up that it cannot
be produced artificially. and so any one
who purchases comb honey may rest
assured that he is getting the pure ar
ticle. 1t is, however. no uncommon
practice to put a piece Of comb honey
into liquid which Is very largely COM
posed of glucose. Indeed. to buy comb
honey in a can of liquid is. in the large
majority of cases, to purchase an adul-
terated article.
A New York firm years ago did a large
business In the adulteration and sale of
glucosed honey. When confronted with
the fact they owned up to the charge
and urged as an excuse that the addition
of glucose prevented granulation and
made the liquid honey (?) more accept
able to the trade. 1t Is true that most
extracted honey will granulate or be-
come candied when the weather becomes
cool, and that the addition Of glucose
will prevent such granulation or crys-
tallization. The fact. then. that ex-
tracted honey does not solidify as the
cool days Of winter come on is pretty
certain sign that 1t Is not a pure article.
have stated above that honey adul-
teration was extensively carried on in
most of the larger cities of the United
States. 1t is true that this adulteration
Is almost entirely, If not exclusively, the
work of the wholesale dealers and is
never done in the apiaries by the bee
keepers. The writer has Investigated
this matter very thoroughly and is per-
suaded that the honey producers do not
add glucose to their honey. There are
three ways, then, for the purchaser to
secure pure or unadulterated honey-to
get comb honey, extracted honey that
has granulated. or to purchase honey of
the producer.
1t is often stated, and has been so pro.
nounced by high scientific authority,
that honey adulterated with glucose Is
entirely wholesome. think this mis-
take and feel sure l can sustain the
position l take. When bees are con-
fined to the hives through long winters
they invariably die If given a diet ex-
clusively Of glucose, although II fed cane
syrup they often winter better than If
fed or permitted to feed ON honey. Again,
bees will not eat glucose II they can find
any other food; will not even gather and
store it II other and better sweets are
to be secured.
It is grave wrong and injury to the
producer Of any food product to sell as
such product fraudulent article. In
case Of honey, there is double wrong
done the beekeeper. The adulterated
article has brassy or metallic taste,
which, though not enough to cause re-
lection of the article, will cause one to
soon tire of it, and thus the reputation
of and demand for good honey suffers.
Every beekeeper is interested in the sup
precision Of this rascally business. and
they are all eager that laws should be
made and enforced looking to that end.
California has an admirable law, as
have many other states. The beekeep-
ers' unions, that have already done such
effective work in defending the rights
of beekeepers, are planning to see that
efficient laws be enacted and enforced
all along the line that their business no
longer suffer from this heavy curse. The
whole people should grant them sup
port. 1t has been shown that adultera- :
tion Of honey is a danger to the health
of our people. Our chemists can detect
the evil Thus we may hope that before
very long honey adulteration will cease
to harm our people and the beekeeping
industry