ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 79, 13 July 1868, Page 167

ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD.

The best of us cannot resist the influence of habit, and the majority certainly do not care to do so. The thief never is troubled with the idea that he is doing wrong, and the tradesman that believes himself to he thoroughly honest, who would denounce the slightest deviation from truth and honesty in another, will with the lightest conscience, commit frauds in his own way of business if he has only been brought up to do so.

“ Sam, have you dusted the pepper, and sanded the sugar?” “Yes, Master/’ “Then we will have prayers.” In this3jv&l;known joke we find the expression of an eternal truth : custom will inure us to wickedness all'the while that we belieye, ourselves to be saints.* .

The little preliminary, disqui-ition will be forgiven us when we tell our readers that our object is to open their eyes to some very cunningly-contrived frauds they are subjected to by their tradesmen. It is needless to say that the frauds, as a rule, depend upon the character of the neighborhoods in which they are perpetrated. There is-Aivastly larger amount of adul teration taking place in the East End of London for instance, than in the West. But it does not always follow that even in the best shops you can obtain what you want unsophisticated. As the grocer has always had a bad name for the clever manner in which he manipulates his wares, we Bhall not be going far wrong if we lead him out first. Whenever any powder isold, or some compounded matter, then the adulterator finds the path open to him to play his tricks. For instance, pepper, when ground, presents a dust which may admit of much mixing without being discovered ; and as a consequence, pepper is almost universally adulterated with flour. There used to be an article sold in the trade by the wholesale grocers for the nefarious purpose, which went by the name of “ P.D.”: it was sold by the cask; and although Wm. Budgett, ‘‘the successful merchant,” who denounced the fraud, is now dead, we believe, “ P.D.” still flourishes. It is simply the sweepings of the floors of the pepper, warehouses, and we may imagine, therefore, its cleanli ness. Ground rice, linseed meal, and ground mustard seed, are also used—that article, in fact, which can be procured at the lowest price always being selected. Oayennepepper is fraudulently mixed with deal Baw-dusf, brick-dust, and salt, and the colour is “ brought up” with—what do our readers think?—red lead, a substance, that in auy quantity is absolutely poisonous. Of late years the means of discovering these frauds have become very large by means of the microscope, which gives the texture of different ingredients with unerring certainty. Dr Hassall, some years ago, was the first to direct this powerful eye upon the unseen world, in which of old so much villainy was being carried on with the utmost security. This searching aid to vision is always at hand when doubtful matters have to be investigated ; and we hope it will be the means of keep ing the most daring adulterators in some check. Tea, especially green, is made up in the most audacious manner; but this is done, especially with green tea, far away in China. Ordinary black teas are painted with a mixture of Prussian blue and gypsum. It is thrown into the pan during the process of roasting. No doubt many of the .sleepless nights that arise, after taking this spurious, so-called green tea, is to be ascribed to this abominable fraud. The Chinese never touch such colored teas themselves, preferring to revenge themselves by its means on the outside barbarians. Some teas are simply re-dried old used-up tea leaves, curled afresh and roasted. These specimens are sold principally in the lowest neighborhoods ; but there is a fancy tea whioh is sold largely at the West End, whioh is a still greater fraud upon the purchaser. “ Scented Caper” sounds like a great delicacy j but it is in reality a wholly manufactured

article—that is scarcely into its composition It is composed principally of lye tf/a, which, according to Djr Hassell, is made of broken-down pjjffcioris of leaves, tea-dust, sand, and dirt, mixed with gum into the form of nodules. There is fully forty-five per cent of earthy matter in this choice compound for the teapot. The lowest priced teas like the cheapest wines, are the only ones free from adulterations. This is lucky, for the working classes at all events; but we fear they pay for it only too dearly in other matters. It is gratifying to know that the cheap rate at which teas .have been imported since the opening of China trade has in a great measure, destroyed the manufacture of spurious teas which was carried on to such an extent in the last century; no less than four million of pounds, says the report of 1783, were annually made in England out of sloe and ash leaves. It is a pleasure that all the villainy is not modern.

Coffee is adulterated with mahogany saw-dust, ground acorn 9, roasted carrots dogs’ biscuits, and what is still more repulsive, baked hordes’ and bullocks’ livers. There are men known as liver bakers, who prepare powders from the animal sources, which are sold to give a body to the coffee. A few years since chicory was the common ingredient with whieh it was mixed. It used to be lawful to sophisticate in this manner; and the consequence was, that in many of the samples, especia’ly canisfceV .samples, Dr Hassall found that chicory formed the chief ingredient in the article. Now chicory must be sold separately ; but we apprehend that it is of ten used to adulterate the superior article in the low neighborhoods. There are certain inspectors appointed to examine such matters, but their inspections are few and far between. If a few of these useful officers were to determine to do their duty, like Haroun al Raschid,''the poor would receive an immense advantage; for, as it is, they are victimised shamefully. Milk is too tempting a fluid to hope to escape; the iron-tailed cow is the principal adulterator. Sometimes water is mixed to the extent of 50 per cent, and at the same time the cream is extracted to be sold at the West End. Cream is, indeed, but too often a manufacture; flour is mixed with skim-milk to thicken it, and a ball of annatto is swung round in the can to give it a rich color. Butter is adulterated with salt to thirty per cent, lard is used to mix with it; and the bread we use with it is shamefully falsified. The baker been known as a rogue from theearliest time. The" London specimen of the craft has'not fallen off from his old wavs. He mixes with his flour, when it is dear, alum, white clay, bonedust, and, most largely of all, potatoes, and flour made from damaged wheat. The alum that is required to bring up damaged-flour to the required whiteness is very great, sometimes as much as a hundred grains in a four-pound loaf. There is also a stuff made by the druggists called “ hards,” a preparatiou used to correct the sour taste of the damaged flour. The adulteration of alum is not only fraudulent but deleterious to the health, inasmuch as it is a violent astringent. Some ' people use marmalade instead of butter upon their bread; but they will not escape adulteration by this arrangement. Marmalade, excepting that which is purchased iu the best shops, i 9 falsified to a very large extent with sliced carrots, turnips, and apples; but Dr Hassall found that there was mort dire adulteration, in the form of copper, to bring up the color, which he often found in dangerous quantities. Copper is largely used again in the manufacture of pickles. That vivid green, which makes the pickle of the pickle mer chant look so much more attractive than those made at home, owes its color to copper. Housekeepers of old used to throw a halfpenny into their pickles with the same purpose. Messrs Crosse & Blackwell, who 1 are aware of the poisonous nature ef cop- 1 per, guarantee that none is to be found in . any of their preparations. ;We fear they stand alone in this avoidance of the metal. 1 Many of the preserved fruits with which 1 tarts are made in winter, such as goose- 1 berries, rhubarb, greengages, contain acetate of copper, or verdegris, in large : quantities, especially those prepared by 1 the French. When any of our little ones ' fall ill, after indulging in such enticing i pastries, we may guess what is the cause. 1 Et seems' bard that the most attractive 1 sweets should be subject to adulterations ( more deleterious than are to be found in 1 any other articles of food. It must have 1 been a diabolical person who first pepetra- 1 ted the sin of mixing poisonous pigments 1 with the lozenges and sweets the little 1 ones receive as special treats. What we 1 have to say, however, will be a caution. 1 They never should give their little ones ' sweats that are colored -in imitation of nature. Sometimes we see fruits imitated with their leaves; in order to do this, tints are employed that are highly injurious. Thus, the reds are done with red lead, the yellows with chromate of lead. How many a sweet in the shape of an orange have we seen thus colored with death ? The green leaves are colored with arsenite of copper, and carrots are represented by [ chromate of lead and Brunswick green, any one of which is a virulent poison. At the beßt shops only vegetable colors are used ; indeed, in most of the continental states it is not lawful to use any of the dangerous metallic pigments. The white sugar itself hut too often in the cheap shopß —around whioh the little ones congregate like flies round a honey-pot-

is adulterated with plaster of Paris. Suck dainties call for the doctor, but the spiritof falsification often his efforts abortive.. Many of th,b; drugs of the pharmacopoeia are rendered almost inert by the admixture of other matters. Bhubarb is falsified with tuxsneric and gamboge, and cantharides with black The cod liver oil, on which so oftehrthe last hope for the poor invalid rests, is rendered

worthless by the addition of common oils. Opium, again, which is the most useful drug the physician uses, is vilely adulterated. Honey is adulterated with flour, starch, and sugar 3 starch and arrowroot with potato-flour and sagomeal. Thus the cheating goes on all round, and the tradesman who does these wicked things suffers as much as anyone from his fellow-craftsmen. If everyone was honest, we should make just as much as by cheating each other. If the thief finds that whilst he has his hand in his neighbor’s pocket his neighbor is picking his own, there is only a waste of labor in the process. It often happens, however, that the adulterator is unconsciously making his art cumulative, and without intending it, he becomes a verity able homicide. Accum, who published a famous book on the subject of adulterating, at the beginning of the century, gives one instance of this. He says that a gentleman who was accustomed to take toasted cheese for his supper, perceived that after eating a certain cheese he always suffered from cholic 3 and even the cat was sick. He had it analysed, and found that lead was present in the cheese in large quantities. On inquiring further, he found the maker of the cheese mixed vermilion with the annatto to give it a deeper colour 5 and in trying still further back, he found that the druggist who sold the vermilion had mixed it with red lead, suppposing that the mixture was only required for house paint. In this manner, although neither person in the chain which helped to produce the poisonoas cheese wilfully did his part, yet the result proved the danger of departing from the path of honesty. If our eatables are falsified in this disgraceful manner, our liquids are yet more trudulently concocted. The beer we drink is dressed up, not for the 'purpose of quenching the thirst, but in order that the more we drink, the more we may. Salt is a very common addition, and sometimestobacco 3 but the art of mixing beer has become a matter of commerce. There are persons who do a large stroke of business as “Brewers’ Druggists.”-—the name is suggestive of everything that is na9ty—they provide quassia to give a bitter, and salts of steel to give it a head 3 when color is wanted, burnt sugar and molasses are added. These are not random guesses, but the published statement of the Excise, who often have to seize these deleterious compounds in the stores of the publicans. The large brewers are guiltless, we are informed, of these'-tricks 3 nevertheless, we scarcely believe that malt and hops are answerable for the odd tastes we find in some of the London stouts. It is more than probable that these adulterations, however, take place after they have passed into the hands of the publicans. _W e scarcely dare enter into the question of wines and spirits, the field is so wide, and the adulterations are so great. London gin is adulterated with water to full sixty per cent; and then, to bring up its pungent taste, it is dosed with capsicums, and, in some low neighborhoods, vitriol. Wine, again, is fraudulently adulterated the other way. To make the port and sherry of the shops, the cheapest red and white wine to be procured are purchased, and then, to give them “ body,” as much as forty per cent of alcohol is added. The color and crust, even to the staining of the cork, are added artificially. Whatever you do,, good reader, beware of the ‘‘ fine old port,” and the “ celebrated sherry,” you meet with in the grocers’ shops; There is scarcely a drop of the juice of the grape in it, and that of the poorest quality. Indeed, for the matter of that, all ports and sherries are adulterated with from thirty to forty degrees per cent of spirit to suit the taste for strong liquors said to be demanded by Englishmen, but which we believe to be an invention of the wine merchant. One thing is clear, that, since Gladstone has taken the heavy duty off light wines, they have increased full seventy per cent, whilst the old drugged port has gradually been declining, and is now as little drunk by the upper classes as Madeira or other oldfashioned wines. Falsification in food and drink, we trust has reached its limits, and it depends upon the public if they are to be longer defrauded; chemical analysis, aud the microscope are always at our call to detect such frauds, and the exposure of a few tradesmen serves to instil a wholesome fear into those wiu> would cheat if they were not afraid of being found out. A. W.

. * The classical scholar will not forget Horace (I. Ep. xxL 60, 61), Labra movet metuens audiri: Pulchra livera, Batnihi fallere, da justo sanotoque videri. m