Year: 1877

We take the following extracts from
an article which recently appeared in the
Evening Post:


While it is certain that needless alarm
is frequently excited by exaggerated
statements regarding food adulteration,
there can be no doubt that many Of the
articles of food met with on our tables
often con tain foreign ingredients which
are introduced either for the purpose OF
lessening their cost or improving their
taste and appearance.


Flour is subjected to adulteration with
other and inferior meals. such as rice,
beans, rye, potatoes, and Indian corn, the
addition of which cheapens the price and
in some cases bestows a good color upon
a damaged or inferior grade, or causes it
to take up an abnormally large quantity
of water. The addition of foreign meals
to -four is practised, however, almost ex-
clusively in Europe, as most of the sub
stances of this class used have in this
country a greater value than pure wheat
en- -four. A more probable illustration
with US is the use of alum and mineral
substances; the former is occasionally
employed to impart a white color to the
-four, the latter, which include sulphate
of lime, kaolin, chalk, and bone dust, be-
ing used to produce increased weight. 1t
has quite recently come to light that a
flour containing ten per centum of a
mixture of chalk. plaster of Paris, and
barytes has for some time formed a stea-
dy article of export from Holland into
other European countries. The presence
of such substances as these can be de
tected by placing the Flour in a long
tube nearly filled with chloroform, shak-
ing the mixture and allowing il to stand
when the pure -four will rise to the top
Of the liquid, the heavier mineral adul-
terants sinking to the bottom.


Bread naturally contains the foreign
ingredients added to the -four from which
it is made; but in addition to these, 9TH
er substances are sometimes used in its
preparation. Alum is employed to pre-
vent the action of the diastase upon the
starch, and to prevent the bread from be-
coming sour and mouldy; and although
this salt undoubtedly tends to accomplish
these results and imparts a fine white
appearance to the bread, its use Is not
Unsuitable. When taken into the stom.
ach it is liable 10 occasion acidity and
dyspepsia; furthermore, il prevents the
solution of a large proportion of the elu
ten Of the bread, thereby causing a de-
crease in its nutritious value. A far
more reprehensible adulteration consists
in the addition of sulphate of copper,
which has the same effect on the color
OF the bread and on the diatase. Al
though this salt is but seldom employed.
and then in but very small AMOUNTS, its
use is to be condemned in the Strongest
terms, as it acts as a virulent poison, and
its effects are cumulative. A simple and
delicate test for detecting the presence
Of copper is to moisten the suspected
bread with few drops OF solution OF fer
rocyanide of potassium, which will cause
pinkish color to become apparent if the
metal be present.


Pickles and preserves are often arti-
icially colored. The deep green color
frequently noticeable in the former is al
most invariably due to the presence of a
sort OF copper (the sulphate or acetate)
which is either directly added to them
or is produced by using copper vessels in
their preparation, both methods being
recommended in several cooking books.
This adulteration can be detected by al
lowing piece of clean and polished iron
to remain immersed in the picking vim
egsr for few hours; in presence OF cop.
per a thin coating Of this metal will be
deposited upon the iron.


The condiments used at the table are
also frequently far from pure. Addition
al acidity is often impaired to vinegar by
the addition of sulphuric acid, the use ol
which was formerly considered necessary
in order to prevent its decomposition
and was allowed by law in Great Britain
but although the fallacy of this BELLE
has been demonstrated, the practice is
still resorted to. A few weeks ago five
carloads Of vinegar received in Washing
ton from Chicago were found to contain
over fifty iour grains of sulphuric acid
per gallon, in the form of sulphate o