THE SULPHURING OF DRIED FRUITS.

Waikato Times, Volume XL, Issue 3211, 24 January 1893, Page 2

THE SULPHURING OF DRIED FRUITS.

Our readers will doubtless have frequently remarked the wonderful improvement in the " get up " of dried fruits nowadays as compared with the honest product of former years, It is, however, somewhat doubtful whether the continual use of sulphur in the preparation of fruits for the market is, after all, so beneficial for the consumer. The fruit season is coming round, when we hope to see large quantities of fruit preserved in this way, both for home use and for market. A good demand always exists for. dried fruits, particularly apples, if they are tolerably'well done, and what can be more valuable for the household than a good store of dried fruit for use during the winter and spring months when fresh fruit is practically unattainable, An extract from an horticultural paper, bearing upon this question of sulphuring fruits, will not be out of place at this season. The writer says: The effects of sulphurous aoid (the gas, not the visible fumes, given off from burning sulphur) as a disinfectant and bleaching agent are generally understood. The gas is absorbed by the moisture of the fruit to an extent depending upon the time of exposure, its fresh or dried condition, and the amount of sulphur used. When freshly-sliced fruit is sulphured for a short time the gas penetrates only skin deep, and when the;fruit is afterwards dried, whether in the sun or drier, mostof thegas escapes, and few persons would note the difference in tiste produced thereby. Injects, however, are to a very material extent deterred from touching such fruit. Rut when the latter is dried, and then thoroughly sulphured, as is too commonly done,the effect,is much more serious. The gas then penetrates the entire spongy mass, bleaching it, so that care* lessly dried fruit, too dark to be market, able, oan thus be made to appear more or less inviting to the eye j not however to the nostrils, or to the taste, for with the colour the flavour has also suffered correspondingly, and upon opening a package of such fruit, instead of the natural aroma, there appears the flavour familiar to those who visit a chemical laboratory or acid manufactory.: The consumer then has reason to object to dry sulphured fruit on two counts, either of which it sufficient to condemn the practice. One is that dirty, ill-prepared or damaged fruit may thus be imposed upon him for good quality; the* other, that the natural flarour of the fruit is either seriously impaired or sometimes almost completely destroyed, and (as will be shown) its acidity greatly increased, There is another and verv serious indictment, namely, that, such fruit is unwholesome, because containing an antisceptic that impedes digestion, »nd while the fruit is relatively fresh, cause headaches just as will sulphured wine, in addition to rendering, the fruit unpalatably acid, it has been rendered obnoxious both to the digestive organs and to the teeth, No one could habitually consume such fruit without feeling the effects of such au amount of mineral aoid introduced into his food, purely for the gratification of the eye with an unnatural tint. But so loner as the pubile and its agents •4he middleman-continue to pay from 30 to SO per cent, per cwt. more for tho whitened sepulchres offered them in the, Bhape of sulphured fruit, than for that which retains with it? natural flavour and sweetness the natural tint of dried fruit and with it the marks of careful or careless treatment, so long will the producer continue to supply the demand for the doctored article, unless, indeed, the law intervene as has been dune in most European countries, There the sale of sulphured fruit is simply forbidden as injurious to public health, and as comimr under suspicion of having been' 'dootored" up from an inferior article with fraudu» lent intent.