Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1895 — NOT WHAT THEY SEEM. [ARTICLE]

NOT WHAT THEY SEEM.

Things We Eat Are Often but Bas, Counterfeits. It is hard to tell just what one cats in these days. The wonderful ingenuity developed by matiufaefureft—unscrupulous ones, of course, and money crazy—iu the adulteration of nearly all food products vyould keep the average- man who cares what he eats guessing as to the contents of the dishes on his table. ’ . . The recent investigation of food adulteration by Commissioner Wells of ths Dairy and Food Department of Pennsylvania shovys some startling facts, So many articles are adulterated as tc raise the question as to what is purs food. ... Among the many Impure things sold are allspice,"which often is mainly composed of ground and roasted eoeoanut shells; baking powder; beef, wine, and iron prepared as'n tonic; butter, buckwheat flour, , candy, catsup, cider, cheese, cinnamon, cloves—the lattes ' made almost entirely'from grouud cocoanut shelly., the odor and taste ol cloves being scarcely perceptible; coffee, consisting chiefly of coffee screenings or, damaged coffee, but sold at a high price as a pufe article; fresh "Java” made -from wheat; and barley hulls, roasted with.sugar and containing no codfish not codfish at all —merely cheap dried fish; cream of tartar adulterated with flour; flaxseed .adulterated—axiih- ’starch; . fruit “butters,” s.ueh as apple butter, peach butter, etc,, very seldom pure, being adulterated with starch waste and ; salicylic acid; the same Is true of gritted pinehulls, rice flour, and cayenne pepper, lard;-maple sirup, made from commercial glucose, thinned with about 20 pej cent of water; mixed spices, orangs juice, lemon oil, lemon phosphate, molasses, mustard, olive oil, pepper, vine-, gar,. V'ariilla extract, all kinds of preserves, extract of strawberries, and tea. • To add to the deception a few appls speds are scattered through 'the Cocalled jams? or timothy Ji- other seeila »are added to the piixture to repftjsent raspberry, strawberry, etc. - J The production of artificial colors la particularly common in confections. Indigo, tumeric, annatto, logwood, and cochineal are used in great quantities, and are probably not harmful'; arsenic, copper, and leads are very deleterious, but are not now used as in forme! times, before sanitary officials made sue h persistent attacks on them. Milk and milk products are often colored. Annatto is very commonly used by dairymen to give a rich yellow color. In itself annatto is probably harmless, but it produces deceptive resuits.