Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

is commercially impossible, because the bees work more cheaply than men can, even with the very finest machinery or the cheapest labor. Under very favorable circumstances, where real honey can be raised from 10 to 12 months a year, as in Cuba, comb honey can be raised for 2 or 3 cents a pound. A comb foundation is simply an aid to the bees. Our honey crop is short in duration, and if the bees spend part of the time in building the comb they lose part of the crop. Beehives are composed of two structures-the board department, perhaps a foot high, and an upper frame half that height. Nine pounds of comb foundation are used in the permanent board part to 1 pound that is used in the surplus or pound sections. The comb foundation used in the board department may be used for 15 or 20 years, and is never destroyed; it is filled with young bees and honey year after year. Mr. Moore believes that the percentage of bee keepers who use the comb foundation in the 1-pound sections is very small, and he advises against its use there. (218.)

3. Liquid honey-demand and process of extraction. Mr. MOORE says that ninetenths of the trade ask for liquid honey; nine-tenths of the cake bakers, candy makers, roach-poison makers, druggists, and private families require liquid honey without a comb, if they understand that it is always pure honey. The honey is extracted from the comb by centrifugal motion, from one side at a time. The wood protects the wax, and the bees at once fill the comb again. A good comb with a good foundation in the center can be used 25 or 30 times. It takes more experience to raise comb honey than liquid honey. (219, 220.)

4. White-clover and wild-sage honey.-Mr. YORK, referring to a jar labeled" California white-clover honey," says it was put up by a Chicago firm. He never heard of a pound of white-clover honey being shipped from California. (214.) Mr. York says honey made from wild sage or sage brush has a very different flavor from white-clover honey. (213.)

5. Varying physiological effects.-Dr. WILEY says pure honey sometimes produces nausea, and that some forms of honey are absolutely poisonous to some people. (216.)

Mr. YORK says a friend of his once said honey always made him sick, but witness gave him some pure honey, and he took it without harm. (216.)

6. Preservatives unnecessary-granulation.-Mr. YORK says he thinks no antiseptic preservatives are used either in pure honey or in its substitutes. Pure honey needs no preservative, as it will keep almost indefinitely. Honey has been found in one of the Egyptian catacombs, done up with a mummy; it was 2,000 years old, but as good as ever. Nearly all pure honey will granulate in time, some in 1 month, some perhaps not for 2 years. Mr. York does not know of anything being used to prevent granulation. (211.)

7. Proposed legislation. Mr. YORK says very few States have pure-food laws affecting honey. All the bee keepers ask for is a law requiring the articles offered for sale to be labeled. There would be at least five times as much puie honey consumed in Chicago if people were not afraid of the adulterated article. (210.)

Mr. York thinks a national law regulating the commerce between the States in adulterated honeys would be beneficial to bee keepers. (215.)

Mr. HERMAN F. MOORE, secretary and treasurer of the Chicago Bee Keepers' Association, says a law preventing fraud in honey will benefit everybody, both consumers and bee keepers; he thinks it would increase the demand for pure honey. The sale of adulterated honey would be reduced 75 or 80 per cent if it were labeled. (220.)

Professor EATON believes that in the case of honey an honest label stating the composition is all that is required. (236.)

H. Jelly-1. Substitution of gelatin, glucose, etc.-Dr. WILEY says that the oldfashioned pure jelly has almost gone out of use in the trade, the gelatin of commerce being largely employed, with artificial flavorings. All animal tissues contain the elements of gelatin, but they exist especially in cartilage, bones, and hoofs in the form of collagen, a highly nutritious, nitrogenous substance, which is converted into gelatin when heated in boiling water. The highest grade of gelatin is obtained by heating the tendons and bones of animals, especially the tendons. The hoofs and rougher portions yield gelatin which is used as glue. Gelatin is entirely different in chemical composition from the pectin or pectose of fruits, which is of the same family as sugar, and which produces jelly. The gelatin of animals has a higher nutritive value, pound for pound. The gelatin in artificial jellies simply gives the flexibility and tenacity of the mass, while the color and flavor are made to imitate those of fruits. A great deal of the jelly on sale contains no fruit substance, except perhaps a dash of wine. The witness has nothing to say against their wholesomeness, but characterizes them as fraudulent. Jellies are also largely made, he says, by utilizing the by-products of the apple-drying

62

and cider-making industry, the parings, cores, and pomace, from which is obtained
pectose, which is fortified with glucose and flavored and colored.
Six samples bought by Dr. Wiley in New York City were without exception
artificial, though they were labeled and sold as pure fruit jellies. They were
(22, 23.)
made of glucose, flavored with an extract of apple cores and peelings obtained
from dried-apple factories, colored with aniline dyes, and further flavored with
artificial essences. Dr. Wiley says that one can not be at all certain, even in a
high-grade store, of getting a pure fruit jelly when one asks for it. In a lower-
grade place one is quite certain to get some composite article. Yet one pays the
price of the best article. (584.)

99 66

Professor JENKINS states that more than one-half of the jellies examined at the Connecticut Agricultural Station are adulterated. One firm sells several brands of jellies," orange," ""strawberry,' sweetened with glucose, flavored with artificial flavors, colored with coal-tar grape," etc., all made of a starchy paste, dyes, and kept from molding with salicylic acid. (451.)

Mr. STEWART does not believe that 5 per cent of the jellies sold are pure, from what he sees going out in tubs and in retail stores and elsewhere. Glucose and acid of some kind are used. (79.)

Mr. DUFF says that it is very difficult to get a pure fruit jelly. Glucose is largely the base of those in the market. (498.)

Professor PRESCOTT says jellies are largely made up of artificial mixtures and given the name of the jelly of this or that fruit. He thinks this is a very flagrant instance of injurious substitution. (198.)

Mr. BERRY thinks all the sirup houses now manufacture jellies. The Chicago Sirup Refining Company makes two varieties, one pure, the other the so-called "commercial jelly," which is marked "Jelly." The pure jelly is made from fruit juices and sugar as people would make it at home for their own consumption. In making apple jelly absolutely as pure as it can be made the apples would be boiled and the liquor condensed to the proper consistency and equal parts of sugar added; but Mr. Berry considers it better to make it of apple cider, because the jelly is then more transparent and has a more delicate flavor. The demand for pure jelly is very limited. The jelly sold is consumed by the masses, who want jelly at a certain price and do not care whether it is jelly or not. The commercial jelly in Illinois and other States having no pure-food laws is labeled simply "Currant jelly," "Raspberry jelly," etc., the commercial jelly being the base of a great variety of jellies. This commercial jelly is made from cores and skins. In evaporating apples the parings and cores are evaporated and will then last from one year to the next. They are mixed with glucose and a small proportion of sugar. The jelly is 50 per cent glucose, 10 per cent sugar, and 40 per cent apple juice, the glucose being put in to give it body. Mr. Berry considers this jelly wholesome. His company uses no gelatin.

Mr. Berry says the tart taste of the jelly is imparted by the apple juice, which is not overcome by the 10 per cent of sugar or by the glucose. In making currant jelly, also, apple juice and glucose are the foundation, and the jelly is flavored and colored bright red. People go largely by the label on the pail. (98, 99.)

2. Acids and coloring matters.-Mr. BERRY says the Chicago Sirup Refining Company, in making commercial jelly, uses an acid preparation to make the jelly firm, bought from the concern which prepares it. He does not know its composition, but declares it perfectly harmless; the pure-food commissioners in Michigan, Ohio, and other States have accepted it. Only a very small trifle is required in each pail. It has no antiseptic feature. Witness does not think an antiseptic necessary, having seen jelly a year old. He thinks that when old-fashioned domestic jellies ferment the trouble lies in the making. usually allowed to stand over night before it is considered well jellied, but jelly Home-made jelly is made with this preparation will be jellied in a few hours as well as it ever will. The company uses an imported coloring matter guaranteed to be a perfectly harmless vegetable color. An ounce of coloring matter dissolved in water is used in 50 gallons of jelly. Formerly aniline was used, which is poisonous. Witness does not know the composition of the coloring matter used, but the food commissioner of Ohio has passed upon it as satisfactory. In Michigan the jelly is sold uncolored, and branded "Imitation fruit jelly. concerns in the jelly business sent a man to Michigan, with the result that the acid Several years ago the Chicago was acceptable, but the jelly must be uncolored. The Michigan people made a ruling and then changed it in a little while, the last ruling being that jelly must be uncolored. The Chicago Sirup Refining Company had a quantity of colored jelly in Michigan sold before this ruling was made, and it was required to exchange it for uncolored jelly. The company wrote to the food commissioner explaining that the goods had been sold before his new ruling and that the exchange would involve considerable expense, but his answer was, "I send

[ocr errors][merged small]

you a copy of the law; act accordingly." Mr. Berry has reason to believe that aniline preparations are not now largely used for coloring jellies, though some concerns may use them. The vegetable coloring matter his company uses is not as cheap as aniline, but he does not think the difference in cost would be sufficient temptation to use aniline to a man who had any regard for the public welfare. (99-102.)

Professor HALLBERG, referring to Mr. Berry's admission that he does not know the composition of two substances used in jelly, says this probably means that either the processes of manufacture are patented or that the names are copyrighted, and that the manufacturers can change or modify the formula so that the person using them may have the very best intentions and yet be using sulphuric acid. Witness has been credibly informed that it is sulphuric acid that is used. The extent to which substances may be used to give the artificial effect to simulate the natural qualities as to taste, color, or odor is a very intricate and difficult question, which can be solved only by the most careful and elaborately planned research of scientific men. (103.)

Professor VAUGHAN says most of the jellies, including pear, quince, and pineapple jellies, are made from apples by the addition of flavoring ethers and aniline colors, and by the action of some dilute acid; generally hydrochloric acid in the preparations he has examined, but sometimes sulphuric acid is used. The acid breaks down the fruit and makes a jelly of it more readily than by the ordinary method. He thinks hydrochloric acid is not present in sufficient quantities, at least in the jellies he has examined, to do any harm; it is a normal constituent of the stomach. He objects very much to the use of sulphuric acid. (204.)

Professor MITCHELL mentions a case in Milwaukee where an acid undoubtedly deleterious to health was used in the manufacture of jelly from apple cores and parings. A Milwaukee manufacturer used small amounts of sulphuric acid which remained in his finished jelly, but he was willing to change his methods. (132, 133.)

Dr. WILEY, being asked whether muriatic or hydrochloric acid is a proper thing to use in jelly, says he should not consider a small quantity injurious, because the acid produced in the stomach during digestion is always muriatic acid. (23.)

Professor CHITTENDEN thinks it very doubtful whether the proportion of acetic acid which would be added to a glucose mixture to make it taste like jelly would be injurious to the human body. The quantity which a person would ordinarily consume in that way would probably be too small. But such products ought to be labeled for what they are, and not sold for something else. (424, 425.)

3. Proposed legislation. Dr. WILEY believes there should be some law to prevent the marking of artificial fruit jellies as pure fruit jellies, because it is a fraud upon the consumer and unfair competition with honest manufacturers and fruit growers. (23.)

Professor VAUGHAN is in favor of permitting the use of dilute hydrochloric acid in jelly, with proper notice on the label. The flavoring and coloring of jelly should also be controlled by law. (204.)

VI. CONDIMENTS.

A. Generally.-Dr. WILEY says that nearly all condiments and spices, including coffee and tea, are adulterated by being mixed with some inert and harmless substance; it is very difficult to purchase condiments with a certainty that they are pure. He does not consider the mixing of them with other matters to be objectionable; many persons prefer to have their condiments reduced in strength in that way. The fraud is in selling the mixed article for the pure. "Fillers," consisting of ground inert matter colored to represent every form of spice and condiment, are manufactured in large quantities and sold to dealers in spices and condiments. Sometimes ground shells, such as peanut and cocoanut shells, are used; also flour colored with various materials, especially turmeric. The witness produced samples of fillers for the following articles: (1) Allspice and cloves, (2) black pepper, (3) cayenne pepper, (4) cinnamon, (5) ginger, (6) mustard, (7) cream of tartar; the first six consisting of ground shells of nuts or colored flour, and that for cream of tartar consisting of infusorial earth. (17-19.)

Mr. DELAFONTAINE says that when he investigated spices some years ago he found that almost all of them were largely adulterated with diluters, not necessarily injurious to health. (229.)

Mr. STEWART says that several years ago his company discontinued the handling of any except strictly pure spices, and turned them out under its own brand with a guaranty on every package; selling only to the trade and not to jobbers. He thinks that, as a rule, wholesale grocers who have their own roasting and grind

ing plants, and who make a business of handling spices, sell a pretty good class of goods; but he believes that people who handle carts, hayrakes, and buggies, and give them away with a hundred pounds of spices, must handle a pretty poor grade of goods; they must make money somehow. The prices of certain goods which have been put on the free list are very low, and he thinks it has been found difficult at times to find adulterants. This has had a tendency to reduce adulteration. (78.)

Mr. MURRAY, a drug and spice miller of Chicago, says spices are adulterated in grinding. His business has 2 branches: (1) The manufacture of goods which are kept in stock, and (2) the manufacture of goods to order. This applies not so much to the drugs as to the spices. The goods manufactured and kept in stock are absolutely pure, and when a man wants to buy pure food he generally takes what is in stock. If he wants an adulterated article he gives the order, and it is made for him. Orders for adulterated goods do not amount to more than 5 per cent of the business. Some of the mixtures are made of cocoanut shells, and some from buckwheat middlings or bran. He has ground them for the trade, some men making a business of selling mixtures. Sometimes pepper shells are used in pepper, and mixtures of cinnamon and cocoanut shells for cinnamon. Sometimes there are mixtures made of corn or wheat flour, colored, baked, and ground up. Witness buys his mixtures sometimes in Philadelphia, and sometimes in Chicago. All spices are ground pure. If a man wants cassia and orders it, he gets it strictly pure. If he orders it in such a way that it means so many cocoanut shells, it is made for him, and he knows it. Witness does not put his name on it, but simply says it is a barrel of so and so, not stating whether it is pure or not. Pure goods are marked "strictly pure," or "pure." These mixed goods are not bought so much by jobbers in the city as by outsiders-" scheme men-men who give away a cow or a mule, or a horse and wagon when you buy 10 pounds of nutmeg." Witness does not sell to the retailers, but only in barrels and boxes to the wholesale trade, which does not, as a general thing, order the goods adulterated. The most of his sales of spices are made to the drug trade, who are small dealers in spices. He thinks there is just cause for complaint as to the purity of ground spices, etc. (66-72.)

Professor HALLBERG says cocoanut shells are about as soluble in the stomach as the integuments of the spices themselves. (84.)

B. Pepper, cayenne pepper, etc.-Dr. WILEY has never seen unground pepper adulterated, but says it is very common to adulterate it in the process of grinding or after it is ground. (18.)

Mr. MURRAY says that he has had to adulterate pepper when it has been ordered that way for the trade at certain prices. If a merchant ordered a barrel of pepper at a price less than its cost he would have to put in a certain amount of shells or whatever the man might select. (66, 67.)

Mr. GEORGE W. SMITH, a flour dealer, says buckwheat bran is used by spice mills to grind and mix with their black pepper, buckwheat bran being black. For white pepper white bran is used. (134.)

Mr. DUFF, chemist of the New York Produce Exchange, says that pepper can seldom be got pure. He has found cracker meal in it, and ground corn and other refuse. (497.)

Professor JENKINS, of the Connecticut agricultural station, exhibited a sample of pepper made of acids and charcoal. This is furnished to the trade for mixing with genuine pepper. Professor Jenkins also exhibited a sample of cayenne pepper made of acids and colored with an aniline dye. (452.)

Professor HALLBERG explains that capsicum is the fruit of the cayenne pepper plant, which comes from Cayenne, in South America. He thinks there is not a pound of pure powdered capsicum in Chicago. It consists chiefly of red brick dust. Pure powdered red pepper is so hot and pungent that no one could possibly use it, and it is found necessary to reduce it. There is no especial harm done. Red brick dust is in many complaints one of the very best things that can be taken into the stomach. (84.)

Mr. CLIFF, a manufacturer of pickles, says he buys red peppers from farmers and grinds them up himself. He does not buy ground capsicum of the spice mills, the cheaper class of which adulterate it with ground meal, etc. (156.)

C. Mustard. Dr. WILEY says that ground mustard is very often mixed with so much flour and turmeric that the quantity of pure mustard is very slight, half a teaspoonful sometimes having only the least flavor of mustard. (17.)

Mr. MURRAY believes that the mustard is generally adulterated with flour and turmeric. Some mustards are colored without being adulterated. It is a handsomer article when colored. (69.) See also Extent of adulteration, Jenkins, p. 24. Mr. DUFF, chemist of the New York Produce Exchange, declares that he has

found mustard to be largely exhausted. Few, if any, of the samples which he has examined contained the amount of oil of mustard which they should have. The great adulterants are starch and flour colored with turmeric. (497.)

Professor JENKINS, of the Connecticut agricultural station, exhibited a sample of mustard containing 20 per cent of plaster of paris. (452.)

Mr. CLIFF, a manufacturer of pickles, says he gets his mustard from a New York manufacturer, who has been furnishing it also to Cross & Blackwell and to a good many people in this country, who find it very satisfactory. (157.)

D. Ginger. Professor MITCHELL mentions 1 case in which ginger was adulterated with old tarred rope to give it the necessary stringiness, but says this is not customary. (119.)

E. Cloves. Mr. MURRAY says clove stems are used in cloves. They have a slight flavor of cloves and make a very good article. He does not think he has ever used anything else in cloves. Strictly pure cloves can be obtained. (69.)

Professor HALLBERG says the stems of cloves and the expanded flower in which cloves grow contain scarcely any of the oil of cloves, which is the valuable principle of the spice. The flower of cloves, which is the spice itself, contains from 10 to 15 per cent of volatile oil, representing the flavor of cloves, and a little resin, giving the pungency. (80, 84.)

F. Salt. Dr. PIFFARD says salt is sometimes mixed with a small percentage of cornstarch to make it run more freely from the cruet, the cornstarch acting as a lubricant. Sometimes it is sold as absolutely pure. As a salt manufacturer, Dr. Piffard himself offers one brand of salt which is mixed with cornstarch in a small proportion, but that fact is stated on the label. (188, 190.)

G. Olive oil.-Dr. WILEY says the sale of cotton-seed oil for olive oil has been very extensively practiced in this country. Hundreds of barrels of cotton-seed oil go to France and Italy and return to this country as olive oil or mixed with olive oil. As far as food value is concerned there can be no choice between the two oils. The preference in favor of olive oil is a matter of taste. Some persons prefer the flavor of cotton-seed oil, but it sells for about one-fifth the price of olive oil. When it is sold as olive oil the profit is enormous and the fraud correspondingly great. In California a great many persons are engaged in the production of olive oil, so that this fraud affects American producers to a very large extent as well as the consumers. He has noticed some improvement, in that dealers have left the word "olive" off their bottles and sell the product as table oil, being careful not to use the name "cotton." (16.)

Mr. ROSSATI, an expert employed by the Italian Government, declares that 6,000,000 gallons of cotton-seed oil are produced yearly in this country, and that it is practically all sold either as salad oil or as olive oil. It is never sold under its proper name. In Italy the adulteration of olive oil has of late been rendered more difficult than in other countries of Europe by a high duty on cotton-seed oil. If there is now any adulteration there it takes place in bonded warehouses. The adulterating is chiefly done in this country. The people who are guilty of it can not be punished at law because they use fictitious names, and no individual's interest is specially affected, though the general interests are affected. The mixtures of cotton-seed oil and olive oil are sold as olive oil under foreign names, but not under the name of any actual firm. The temptation to this practice is exceedingly great, because cotton oil can be bought at 30 cents a gallon, while the cheapest eatable olive oil, duty paid, costs $1.40. (446, 447.)

Mr. ZUCCA, president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce of New York, says that olive oil is much adulterated in this country, particularly in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans. He thinks that about two-thirds of the olive oil sold in the United States is mixed. Professor Rossati, according to Mr. Zucca, has found as much as 97 per cent of lard oil and other oils in some samples. Almost all the brands of respectable houses on the other side are imitated here. The least possible difference may be made, such as one letter more or one letter less in the spelling of the name of the maker, in order to avoid criminal prosecution. Pure olive oil costs here at wholesale, including duty, $1.55 a gallon, while the best cotton-seed oil can be bought in quantities at 39 cents. The substitution is a great detriment to the trade of importers who are doing a legitimate business. It ought to be made a punishable offense to mark cotton-seed oil with a label which says olive oil. (485, 486.)

Mr. FURBAY says it is difficult to get pure olive oil. Recent reports show that the greater part of the oil exported from France is mixed with peanut oil. When this is labeled olive oil he considers it fraudulent. (61.)

Professor JENKINS says that the Connecticut agricultural station finds about half of the brands of olive oil to be pure, of better or poorer quality, and about half to contain mixtures of cotton-seed oil and oil of sesame. (453.)

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »