Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1905 — FRAUDS IN FOOD. [ARTICLE]

FRAUDS IN FOOD.

Dr. J. N. Hurty, Secretary of the Indiana State Board of Heath, is the writer of a recent magazine article which ought to be read in full by every housewife in this state. In order to secure some facts in regard to food adulter lion in Indiana, the State Board of Health passed an order that the secretary should buy samples in various parts of the state and have them analyzed by a competent chemist. The following are a few of the results obtained: Cream of tartar —55 samples examined, 14 5 per cent of them adulterated. All the samples were sold as pure cream of tartar at a pure goods price. The adulterants found were acid phosphates of lime, alum salt and plaster of paris. Butter. —15 samples examined 26.6 per cent, being adulterated. One sample was pure dleomargerine. Baking Powders, —6 samples contained terra alba and must be classed as adulterated. Mr. Hurty says; 'Tn our investigation 58 per cent of food samples examined were adulterated. This high rate does not of course, apply to all foods, but only to prepared articles. However, when all is considered, it appears not to be a violent assumption that two cents in every hundred spent for food in Indiana goes for adulteration. Allowing each family $1 per day for food, and assuming 2 per cent, goes for adulteration, we discover that SIO,OOO per day or $3,650,000 per annum is lost to the people and raked off by the adulterators.”