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 Adulterations, 
 
 
 
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 H. G. CHRISTIAN, 
 
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 H. G. Christian, 35 Lafayette Pl. 
 1882. 
 

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 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 
 
 H. G. CHRISTIAN, 
 In the OfiSce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 E. S. Dodge, Stbam Printer, 95 Chambers St. 
 
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 PREFACE. 
 
 The adulteration of foods is now being carried on in 
 such a systematic manner by great dealers and 7nanufac- 
 turers, who 7nake it a special business^ that it is almost 
 iinpossible to detect adulteratio7is without a co7npetent 
 knowledge of the properties of both the pure and the 
 fraudulent. 
 
 What is contained herein is what every school- 
 boy should be taught^ practical every day knowledge. 
 
 Everybody expects full weight in purchasing his 
 groceries, and he has the pleasure of seeing the scales go 
 down; but how many are there who can tell 7vhether they 
 are buying Butter or Oleomargarine, Cane Sugar or 
 Glucose, Jelly or a variety of Glue, Bread from good 
 Flour or that which is made from poor Flour cofttaining 
 chemicals to make it look whiter and better and to increase 
 the iveight, or whether the extensively advertised prepared 
 baby foods are what they are represefited to be. 
 
 People will not buy adulterated foods k?towinglyj and 
 if conswners were able to detect adulterations, the market 
 for fraudulent compounds ivould be spoiled. 
 
 It is hoped that this effort may serve as a means of 
 placing the enforcement of the law concerning the sale of 
 food into the hands of the people instead of the legislature. 
 
 H. G. C. 
 
 New York, Oct., 1882. 
 
DOMESTIC TESTS 
 
 FOR 
 
 FOOD ADULTERATIONS, 
 
 BREAD. 
 
 Bread is adulterated with sulphate of copper, and 
 alum, and other substances which cost less than wheat flour. 
 
 The most easily applied process of detecting sulphate 
 of copper and alum in bread, is that described by Mr. 
 Horsley. ' ' A tincture of Logwood is made by digesting 
 a quarter of an ounce of freshly cut chips in five ounces of 
 methylated spirit, for eight hours, and filtered. A teaspoon- 
 ful of this tincture is put with a like quantity of a saturated 
 solution of carbonate of ammonia in a wdne glass of water, 
 and the mixed solutions, which are of a pink color, are 
 then poured into a white ware plate or dish. A slice of 
 the suspected bread is allowed to soak in it for five minutes, 
 after which it is placed upon a clean plate to drain, and, 
 if alum be present, it will in the course of an hour or two 
 acquire a blue color ; if the tint be greenish, it is a sign of 
 sulphate of copper ; whereas pure bread gradually loses its 
 pink color ; but never turns green or blue." 
 
 Sulphate of copper is used by bakers to make very 
 white bread. 
 
Alum is used by bakers to make the loaves of bread 
 weigh more by absorbing a larger per cent, of water in a 
 way which is not detected by its appearance. 
 
 BABY FOODS. 
 
 Starch is very injurious to babies, consequently any- 
 thing they eat should contain as little as possible Bread 
 contains too much starch, and a great many of the adver- 
 tised foods for babies consist almost wholly of starch, while 
 there are others which contain but very little starch, and a 
 large proportion of gluten, the most important constituent 
 of a genuine baby food. 
 
 Baby foods are easily tested. Put a drop of iodine in a 
 quarter of a glass of water, and take about as much of the 
 baby food to be tested as could be held on the end of a lead 
 pencil. Let a drop of the solution of iodine and water fall 
 on the sample ; should it be pure starch it will turn bright 
 blue, or should it approximate common flour it will turn 
 bluish-purple, and should it be a proper baby food it should 
 hardly turn at all. 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 Pure, unadulterated but is hard to find, and the adul- 
 teration is apt to be worse than fictitious coloring. Not a 
 scrap of fat is wasted in the butcher shop and slaughter 
 house. What formerly went to the soap factory or the can- 
 dlemakers, now goes largely to the butterine or oleomar- 
 gerine factory, where it is converted into the semblance of 
 butter. Properly made, oleomargerine butter may be 
 wholesome enough, but much of that found in the market 
 
is not properly made, and in most cases the buyer is cheated, 
 in that he pays for genuine butter and does not get it. 
 
 Foreign fats, as tallow, lard and suet, may be detected 
 by filling a small glass about three-fourths full with a sus- 
 pected sample ; melt, and while in a molten state place the 
 bulb of a thermometer at the bottom, and let the butter 
 solidify; the water and curd will appear at the bottom of 
 the glass, and if in small quantities is unobjectionable ; the 
 butter fat when warmed should have a sweet and agreeable 
 odor. 
 
 When the butter has solidified, carefully lay a lead 
 bullet, or anything else having about the same weight, on 
 the surface of the butter ; then place the glass containing 
 the thermometer, butter and bullet in a dish containing 
 water of ordinary temperature, the glass not touching the 
 bottom of the dish, and the water in the dish to be below 
 the top of the glass, and above the surface of the butter 
 fat. Now heat gradually, and note the temperature at the 
 moment which the bullet sinks to the bottom of the glass. 
 In pure butter the temperature should not be higher than 
 98°, or lower than 94' F ; but if mixed with foreign fats, 
 the temperature will be considerably higher. 
 
 CANDY. 
 
 Candy is well worth testing, as after a few tests like 
 those described under sugar, you will be able without the 
 tests to detect the glucose, which in some cases is all glucose. 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 Cheese is now manufactured from lard and oleomar- 
 gerine, and a large portion of it is shipped to Europe. 
 
8 
 
 By separating the fat of the cheese by heating, and 
 then testing in the same manner as directed under butter, 
 tke foreign fats may be detected. 
 
 CINNAMON, 
 
 Cinnamon bark is thinner and curled together closer 
 than its adulterant — cassia bark. 
 
 COFFEE. 
 
 t 
 
 Ground coffee is adulterated with chicory, roasted 
 
 grain, peas, beans, bread, cocoanut shells, date seeds, and 
 other substances. An artificial berry is also manufactured 
 from vegetable substances by a machine patented in 
 England So that even in buying the coffee in the berry, 
 it must be closely examined. C hicory itself is adulterated 
 with several different substances. But coffee can be esti- 
 mated by stirring it in a tumbler of cold water ; after a few 
 minutes the coffee will be found at the top and the adul- 
 terations at the bottom, excepting those that are dissolved 
 giving the water a brownish appearance. 
 
 EGGS. 
 
 Eggs should not be eaten when they will not sink in 
 water in which there are three ordinary teaspoonsful of 
 salt dissolved ; and to be real fresh should sink with three 
 and a half teaspoonsful. 
 
 Fresh fried eggs have a full yolk ; but eggs that have 
 been kept a long time have a sunken yolk. Stale boiled 
 eggs are told by the empty space at one end. 
 
9 
 FLOUR. 
 
 Flour is adulterated with bean flour, pea flour, and 
 plaster of Paris. The former two can be detected only bj^ 
 the microscope ; the latter, by washing the flour in water, 
 the plaster remains insoluble. 
 
 GINGER. 
 
 Ginger is largely mixed with starch ; the adulteration 
 may be detected by a drop of iodine, which will turn the 
 starch blue. The iodine solution should be prepared as 
 described under baby foods. 
 
 HONEY. 
 
 Honey, comb and all, is now made successfully, (finan- 
 cially considered) ; the honey out of glucose, the comb out 
 of parafiine, wax, etc. The following test for glucose and 
 dextrine may be applied : 
 
 Take equal quantities (weight or measure) of honey 
 and water, then add strong spirit, stirring constantly till a 
 permanent turbidity is produced ; in artificial honey or 
 honey adulterated with glucose, a heavy gummy deposit 
 will soon form, while with genuine honey a only slight 
 milkiness is produced. 
 
 JELLY. 
 
 Canned jellies and isinglass are now almost wholly 
 made from gelatine. Glue is a gelatine of inferior variety. 
 
10 
 
 Gelatine may be detected in jelly or isinglass by 
 putting it in boiling water : The gelatine will smell of glue; 
 the jelly will have the same smell as it had before ; isin- 
 glass has a fishy smell. 
 
 Gelatine is made from skins which are not fit for 
 anything else ; and in France from the bones of slaugh- 
 tered horses, flavored to suit the demand. 
 
 LARD. 
 
 Lard may be tested by melting 'it in a glass. It will 
 remain tasteless, and without smell, and perfectly trans- 
 parent ; but if adulterated with milk of lime, by which 
 about twenty-five per cent, of water can be incorporated, 
 and the color, when cold, improved, the color of the melted 
 lard will be more or less opaque. 
 
 MAPLE SYRUP. 
 
 Maple sugar has the same composition that cane sugar 
 has, with the addition of its characteristic flavor. It is 
 now bought up in large quantities in the spring of the year 
 and shipped to manufacturers of glucose, where it is mixed 
 with glucose, the latter constituting a great deal the larger 
 proportion. The adulterant, which contains "about forty 
 percent, of impurities,"* gives the maple flavored glucose 
 a light and bright color, which enables it to be sold in the 
 market as the best maple syrup. 
 
 It is tested in the same manner as cane syruj). (See 
 Sugar.) 
 
 *Fraukel. 
 
11 
 
 MILK. 
 
 Milk is adulterated with water, and many times the 
 cream is skimmed off. 
 
 The simplest way to test milk is to shake a small quan- 
 tity for about half a minute^ then place it in a glass and let 
 the cream rise ; the shaking of the milk causes the cream to 
 rise quicker, and in a more condensed form. The cream 
 should amount to about one-tenth, as it rises above or below 
 this, so the milk varies in value. 
 
 After the cream rises, the milk should have a bluish- 
 white appearance, and should vary but little, as the solids 
 not fat are a very constant datum, while the fat varies in 
 opacity with the same quantity under different circum- 
 stances. 
 
 MUSTARD. 
 
 Mustard is largely adulterated with starch. The adul- 
 teration is detected by letting fall a drop of iodine upon 
 the sample; should starch be present the mustard will turn 
 blue. The iodine solution prepared in same manner as that 
 described under baby foods. 
 
 SUGAR. 
 
 The adulteration of sugar has become so extensive that 
 the manufacture of the adulterant glucose has secured the 
 greatest investment of capital in Buffalo, N. Y . , and the 
 manufacture ranks only second or third in several other 
 large cities in northern U. S. Cane sugar is about two and 
 
12 
 
 half times sweeter than glucose ; besides the glucose itself 
 is never manufactured pure, "always containing about 
 40 per cent, of impurities.''* These impurities which 
 always occur in glucose are lime, copperas, gypsum, dex- 
 rine and sulphuric acid. 
 
 Glucose is manufactured from corn in this country. 
 The above mentioned chemicals are either used in convert- 
 ing the starch into glucose, or are formed while the starch 
 is undergoing the chemical change. In 1881, twelve mil- 
 lions of bushels of corn were consumed in the manufacture 
 of glucose. There is not one honest reason why there should 
 be a single glucose factory in the United States, as it is " em- 
 ployed almost exclusively as an adulterant of one of the most 
 common and important constituents of food '*f As to its 
 healthfulness, a glance at the impurities it contains "will 
 denounce it at once as very injurious. 
 
 The most inferior grade of glucose is known by its 
 moist, soapy and brown appearance. Granulated glucose 
 crystallizes imperfectly, is hard and white like loaf sugar, 
 and instead of being transparent like cane sugar, is of a 
 duU whitish color. Capillair glucose is the best that is 
 made; but is not found much in the market. Glucose does 
 not dissolve in water readily; when put into tea or coffee it 
 remains undissolved at the bottom, thus causing a great 
 waste, and if you taste of that which has remained undis- 
 solved you will find it has a bitter taste, caused by the im- 
 purities of the glucose above mentioned. Glucose may be 
 detected by rubbing a sample of sugar together with an 
 equal amount of caustic soda or caustic potash in a mortar, 
 or other suitable dish ; if glucose is present, the mixture 
 turns brown, or yellowish brown ; if not, it remains white. 
 
 *Frankel. \Bosto)i Joxirnal of Cliemislry. 
 
13 
 
 Or it may be detected by boiling the sugar with a solu- 
 tion of caustic soda or caustic potash ; if glucose is present, 
 the solution turns brown ; if not, it remains the same. 
 After a few tests of this kind, you will, by observing the 
 looks of the pure and the fraudulent, be able to distinguish 
 the difference between the two without the test. The for- 
 mer test is best used for white sugar, while the latter is 
 better applied to brown sugar and syrups. 
 
 SYRUP. 
 
 Glucose syrup has a whiter and finer appearance than 
 sugar house syrup, consequently when sugar house syrup 
 is mixed with it its appearance is improved, and to the ig- 
 norant consumer it brings higher prices, while its value is 
 greatly decreased. Glucose syrup is a poorer quality of 
 sugar than that in the solid form, and is mixed with the 
 sugar house syrup in larger quantities than in the best 
 qualities of refined cane sugar. The fraud is detected by 
 boiling with a solution of caustic soda or caustic potash, as 
 directed for sugar ; the effect is the same. 
 
 TEA. 
 
 Tea is not only subject to a general mixture of a little 
 of everything, but exhausted tea is re-dried and glazed in 
 a very skillful manner, having of course, only about one- 
 sixth of its proper strength, with a small proportion of good 
 tea to give it a flavor. It is stated in the Plantefs Price 
 Current that a sample of tea was wholly composed of the 
 following substances : — 
 
 "Iron, plumbago, chalk, China clay, sand, Prussian 
 blue, tumeric, indigo, starch, gypsum, catechu, gum, the 
 
14 
 
 leaves of the camellia, sarangua, chloranthus officinalis, 
 elm, oak, willow, poplar, elder, beech, hawthorn and sloe.'' 
 From the above it is clearly seen that it is important 
 to apply some test, and to do this, tea should be purchased 
 in large enough quantities to make the test a success, both 
 financially and as regards its quality. 
 
 The following is the usual trade test of infusion : — 
 A quantity of tea equal to the weight of a silver dime 
 is put into a small covered vessel and infused with about 
 four ounces of water for about ten minutes. The infusion 
 is then poured off from the leaves, ^nd is examined for 
 color, taste and odor. Impurities like iron, sand and dirt 
 are easily seen among the leaves, or at the bottom of the 
 vessel. All genuine teas possess approximately the same 
 amount of theine, consequently, not considering the flavor, 
 all teas are equal. It is desirable that the leaf should be 
 rolled closely, and should contain very little or no stalk. 
 
 VINEGAR. 
 
 Vinegar is adulterated with glucose-vinegar, cayenne 
 pepper, ginger, sulphuric acid, and hydrochloric acid. 
 
 When vinegar is adulterated with glucose-vinegar its 
 presence is determined by boiling first, to concantrate the 
 vinegar, letting it cool, then mix with two or three times 
 its volume of alcohol, which will precipitate dextrine, a 
 substance always present in glucose. 
 
 For cayenne pepper and ginger, neutralize the acid 
 with common soda. Pure vinegar should then be tasteless. 
 
 For sulphuric acid, add barium chloride, which causes 
 a white precipitate. 
 
 For hydrochloric acid, add nitrate of silver, which also 
 causes a white precipitate. 
 
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