The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-09-29
FAKE JELL|ES
FOOL PEOPLE
Commissioner Helme Will Enforce
Law to Protect Consumers

j. w. Helme. state dairy and food
commissioner. issues the following bull
letin about jellics
Away back in the last century when
the writer was boy. his favorite food
was jelly cake. Any boy who was a
boy in the last century can remember
the jelly cake that his mother used to
make There We're generally eight or
nine layers of cake not very thick and
the same number of layers of jelly
which were nearly as thick as the cake
ana this jelly was real jelly made in
the household from fruit like the cur
rant, the grape, the apple or the crab
apple and II had no color in It. except
that given To IL by nature in her great
laboratory. Naturally jelly cake made
from this kind Of jelly became IL favor
IL" human food and from the home /,
naturally gravitated To the bakery
Here, of course. commercial processes
began to cheaper it's cost and in or
der 10 cheaper It's cost material was
Likewise cheapened. II was found that
the use Of pure fruit jelly in CONNER
clal baked goods was expensive and In
order to cut down the expense and thus
Increase the profit, substitutes were
| found. There were placed on the mar.
ket imitation jellies which had never
seen any fruit These jelliea were
largely from glucose ana dcXtrine
Glucose ana deXtrinc are made solely
! from corn starch treated with muriat.
| lc acid and never from any fruit. There
was one defect, however. i'm the imi'
tation jellics. In their natural condi'
1 ton as they came from the manufac'
! turer they were colorlcss and so they
We're not attractive but the thrifty
/ business man soon obviatcd this. Goa
! tar dyes furnish a large number o
| colors and soon we had the glucos
Jelly colorcd with a red coal tar dye
and a liberal mixture Of timothy see
added, put on the market as straw
berry jelly. other fruit colors wer
| likewise initiated and the cheapncs
of these jellies drove the legitimat
frulit jelly out of the market SO ia
as the baked goods were concerned.
Law Prohibits Colors
Michigan is the second largest frui
growing state in the Union and tn
legislature several years ago, in orde
To protect it's fruit growers, cnacte
stringent laws which prohibit the col
[ % iallN- I'm it1it1t In
of fruit jelly. The law has not bee
as vigorously enforced in the past a
il should have been but it is the in
tention Of this department to cnforc
! the law in the future against the color
ing of any Jelly that is not fru
Jelly. When the consumer goes int
! a bake shop and sees n jelly roll {
, nice red jelly, he naturally conclude
that IL is a fruit jelly when there
not a bit of fruit used in its manufac
lure. In this way the coloring OF GU
cose jellies becomes a fraud upon tn
consumer. There is nothing unwhol'
! some in glucose jellies but when co
] ored TO initiate fruit jellies, they dc
|
/ pay n higher price for them than .
otherwise would and this is the rea
f, son that the coloring Of imitation Je
lies is wrong morally as well as lesa
! lIv. Bakers who use colored imitatio
jellics are Just as subject to the pena
tics of the law as the manufacture
who colored them.
/ Apples Allowed to Rot
, Last wear thousands of bushels
2 APPLES rotted on the ground for wal
of market. In many sections the cid'
! mills refused To buy cider apples III
I cause there was no profitable mark
for the cider and yet these mills a
most of them equipped for making
supcrior quality Of apple Jelly iro
every bit of cider that can he mani
featured. The reason they do not maj
. Il is because glucose icllies colored
= initiate fruit iellies can he sold cheap
than apple jellies and for TINS reas'
= are largely used by the baking trao
!, All inferior apples in Michigan ca
-. readily find market at the cider IN
were /; not for the unfair competi'i'
Of colored glucose jellics and malt VII
q egar In order that the Michigan ir'
, growers may have a legitimate marx
4. for inferior apples and the MlchlS'
consumers can receive pure lruit j.
,ios and pure cider vinegar, TINS a.
nor,rent will make a special effort
the future to enforce the laws go
erning the sale of jcllics and Nineea
that are not made from actual lru'''