Adulteration of Food.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4401, 10 February 1883, Page 2

Adulteration of Food.

The municipal laboratory for the analysis of solid and liquid food in Paris is issuing a series of reports which show that nearly every article of consumption is more or less adulterated. ; 7

We have already referred in a previous correspondence to the extensive scale upon which wine, spirits, and beer afe aduU terated, but it is more surprising still tof find that coffee and even chocolate are rarely sold pure. Chocolate is, as a rule, adulterated by the substitution of bean meal and powdered date stones for the rich matter which the natural cocoa icpn«r tains, and out of 77 specimens of chocolate brought to the laboratory, nearly half were adulterated in this fashion. It might be thought that however much ground coffee might be adulterated by the admixture of chicory and other substances, one was safe in buying it when in the berry; but this is a great mistake forthere are several establishments in Paris which manufacture a compound of ground acorns, burnt wheat, and coffee dregs into* berries, whioh are then dipped in~ an? alcuholio solution of oolophone togi^ethem the appearance of " Best Mocha." Out of twenty-eight specimens^' of whole coffee twelve were found to.-be-adulterated, so that it is not in the East only that one drinks " bad coffee." Even the chicory used to adulterate coffee is not as. a rule, pure; the most common form of adulteration being oxide of iron and* ochre. There is still greater difficulty in procuring genuine pepper, for out of 125 specimens examined, 87 were adulterated, potato, starch, pulverised olive and date stones, cayenne,, pimento, chalk, plaster, and" dust from shop floors being among the. elenients discovered. Sugar :nn& honfey seemed to have escaped so far*the fraudulent -devices of dishonest traders, but syrups which are no largely consumed in Franpe—and jam are very generally adulterated. Out of 39 specimens of syrup 27 had been artificially coloured, and were not therefore made from the fruits which they were named after* while nine were deleterious to health. It is even worse with jam, for out of 18 specimens, fourteen were made principally from fucose, while much of:.the gtiQ currant jelly sold in Paris is made without currants, the jelly beini* obtained by the use of seaweed, the color with fuohsine, and the flavor with an essence made from acetic, tartaric, and other acids:' Even bread, the daily consumption of whichi n France is estimated at 16,000 tons a day, is very much adulterated in Paris by damping the flour bo as to increase its weight, mixing it with bean meal, potatoe starch, etc., or adding to it deleterious compounds of lead, copper, zinc, sulphate of lime, and chalk.. Out of 31 specimens of bread analysed only 13 were made of pure wheat flour, and in examining the composition of flour the spectrum analysis has been found lof ' great assistance, as. the presence of. chemical components canbedeteotedatonce. Butter is even more generally adulterated than bread, for out of 62 samples only 11 were pure. When one remembers that the margarine manufactured in New York ia equilavent to the quantity of butter, which could be made from the milk of 300,000 cows, and that whole shiploads of it are exported from Holland to Normandy, and sent thence to Paris as " best Nornjandy butter." It will be easy to understand why the report of the analysis, is so unfavorable.—Our Paris Letter. x- :-'. ■