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PARTICULAR ARTICLES ADULTERATED We will now proceed to consider See also:adulteration as practised during See also:recent years in the more important articles of See also:food. See also:Milk.—Milk adulteration means in See also:modern times either addition of See also:water, See also:abstraction of cream, or both, or addition of chemical preservative. The old stories of the use of See also:chalk or of See also:sheep's brains are fables. Owing to the wide variation to which milk is naturally subjected in See also:composition, it is exceedingly difficult to establish beyond doubt whether any given See also:sample is in the See also:state in which it came from the cow or has been impoverished. The composition of cow's milk varies with many conditions. (r) The See also:race of the See also:animal: the large cows of the plains yielding a See also:great quantity of poor milk, the smaller cows from hilly districts less amount of See also:rich milk. Hence, milk from Dutch cows compares very unfavourably with that of Jerseys or See also:short-horns. Watery and See also:acid foods like mangolds and brewers' grains produce a more aqueous milk than do albuminous and fatty foods like oil-cakes. (2) Sudden See also:change of food, of See also:weather and of temperature. (3) See also:Nervous disturbances to which even a cow is subject, as, for instance, at shows, may greatly See also:influence the composition of the milk. The portion obtained at the beginning of a milking is poorer in See also:fat than that yielded towards the end. See also:Morning milk is as a See also:rule poorer in fat than evening milk. Soon after calving the animal gives a richer product than at later periods, both the quantity and the composition declining towards the end of the lactation. The See also:variations due to these different circumstances may be very great, as is seen from the following analyses, fairly representing the maximum, minimum and mean composition of the milk of single cows: - Minimum. Maximum. Mean. Specific Gravity . . . 1.0264 1.0370 1.0316 Fat . . . 1.67% 6.47% 3.59% Casein . . 1.79% 6.29% 3.02% Albumen 0'257 1.44% 0.50% Milk See also:Sugar(lactose) • . 2.11 % 6.12% 4.78% Salts 0.35 % 1.21 % 0.71 % Water 80.32% 90'69% 87.40% In See also:market milk such wide variations are not so liable to occur, as the milk from one animal tends to See also:average that from another, but even in the milk from herds of cows the variations may be considerable. The average composition of genuine milk supplied by one of the largest See also:dairy companies in See also:London, as established by the See also:analysis of 120,000 See also:separate samples recorded by Dr P. Vieth, is fat 4.1 %, other milk solids (" solids not fat " or " non-fatty solids ") 8.8 %, See also:total dissolved matters (total solids) 12.9%, the variations being from 3.6 to 4.6 % in the fat and 8.6 to 9.1 % in the solids not fat. It is clear that the 4.6 % of fat could be reduced, by skimming, to 3.0 %, and the 9.1 % of solids not fat to 8•5 % by addition of water, without bringing the composition of the milk thus adulterated outside that of genuine milk. In reality even wider limits of variation must be reckoned with, because small farmers sell the milk of single cows, and this, as shown above, may fluctuate enormously. The See also:Board of Agri-culture, in pursuance of the See also:powers conferred upon it by the Food See also:Act 1899, issued in 1901 " The See also:Sale of Milk Regulations," which provide that where a sample of milk (not being milk sold as skimmed or separated or condensed milk) contains less than 3 % of milk-fat, or less than 8.5 % of non-fatty solids, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that the milk is not genuine. But even in these cases it is open to the vendor to show, if he can, that the deficiency was due to natural causes or to unavoidable circumstances. The courts have held that when deviations are the result of See also:negligence or See also:ignorance the vendor is nevertheless liable to See also:punishment. Thus, when a vendor omits to stir up the contents of a See also:pan so as to prevent the cream from rising to the See also:top, he may be punished, if by such omission the milk becomes altered in composition so as no longer to comply with the regulations; or, when a See also:farmer allows an undue See also:interval between the milkings whereby the composition of the milk may be affected, he may be liable for the consequences. As the limits embodied in the milk regulations were necessarily fixed at figures See also:lower than those which are usually afforded by genuine milk, and as it is a comparatively See also:simple See also:matter to ascertain the percentage of fatty and non-fatty solids, a strong tendency exists to bring down commercial milk to the See also:low limits of the regulations without coming into collision with the See also:law. The fat of milk is its most valuable and most important constituent. The exact determination of the percentage, of fat is therefore the See also:chief problem of the milk-See also:analyst. All analyses made See also:prior to the See also:year 1885 are more or less inexact, because a See also:complete separation of the fat from the other milk constituents had not been obtained. In that year M. A. See also: Formaldehyde (which in 40% water solution forms the See also:formalin of See also:commerce) in milk affords a See also:bright See also:purple See also:colour when the milk containing it is mixed with sulphuric acid containing a trace of an See also:iron See also:salt. Condensed milk is milk that has been evaporated under reduced pressure with or without the addition of sugar. Generally one See also:part of condensed milk corresponds to three parts of the See also:original milk. There is no See also:case on See also:record of adulteration of unsweetened condensed milk, but sweetened milk has in the past been frequently prepared either from See also:machine-skimmed or partly skimmed milk and sold as whole-milk. As sweetened condensed milk is largely used by the poorer part of the See also:population for the feeding of infants, and as the fat of milk is, as stated before, its most valuable constituent, this class of See also:fraud was a particularly mischievous one, and led to the inclusion in the Food Act of 1899 of a See also:special proviso that every See also:tin or other receptacle containing condensed, separated or skimmed milk must See also:bear a conspicuous See also:label showing the nature of the contents. As the bulk of condensed milk consumed in See also:England is imported from abroad, the customs authorities now exercise a strict supervision over the imports, and See also:object to' the importation of such condensed milk as contains less than 9% of milk-fat. The average composition of sweetened condensed milk may be taken, with slight variations, to be: water 24.6%, fat 11.4%, casein and albumen ro%, milk-sugar 11.7%, See also:cane-sugar 40.3%, mineral matters 2.0%. Cream.—There are not any regulations nor See also:official See also:standards See also:relating to this See also:article, the value of which depends upon its contents in fat. See also:Good stiff cream obtained by centrifugal skimming may contain as much as 6o% of milk-fat, but generally dairymen's cream has only about 40%. On the other See also:hand, milk that is abnormally rich in fat is in some places sold as cream. Attempts to compel dairymen to See also:work up to any stated minimum of fat have failed, the See also:English courts holding that cream is not an article that has any See also:standard of quality, but varies with the See also:character of the cows from which the milk is obtained and the food on which they are fed. Therefore, as regards the most important portion of cream, the amount of fat, adulteration does not exist unless there is a substitution for the milk-fat by an emulsified See also:foreign fat, but cases of this description are exceedingly rare. On the other hand, such additions of foreign materials, like See also:starch See also:paste or gelatine, which have for object the giving of .an See also:appearance of richness to a naturally poor and dilute article, are not uncommon. While formerly the sale of cream was entirely in the hands of milkmen, there has been of See also:late a tendency to regard cream as an article coming within the range of grocery goods. To enable this perishable article to be kept in a grocery See also:store it has to receive an addition of preservative, as a rule boric preservative, in excessive amount. The purchaser may take it that all cream sold by others than milk-men, and much of that even, is thus preserved and should be shunned. The limit of boric preservative that might be permitted, but which is nearly always exceeded, is one-See also:quarter of I%. Butter.—Of all articles of food butter has most fully received the See also:attention of the sophisticator, because it is the most costly of the See also:ordinary articles of See also:diet, and because its composition is so intricate and variable that its analysis presents extraordinary difficulties and its nature exceptional and various opportunities for admixture with foreign substances. It is the intention of the producer of butter to separate the fatty portion of the milk as completely as is practicable from the other constituents of the milk without destroying the 'fat-globules. This can onlybe done by churning, by which operation the milk-globules are caused more or less to adhere to each other without losing their individual existence. Owing to this subdivision of the fat, and perhaps to the composition of the fat itself, butter is a more digestible fatty article of food than See also:lard or oil. It is not possible by See also:mechanical means to remove the whole of the water and curd of the milk from the butter; indeed " overworking " the butter with the object of removing the water as completely as possible ruins the structure to such an extent as to make the product unmerchantable. In well-made butter there are contained about 85% of pure milk-fat, from 12 to 13% of water, and 2 or 3% of curd and albumen, milk-sugar or its product of transformation—lactic acid,— and See also:phosphates and other milk-salts. In some kinds of butter, See also:Russian for instance, the percentage of water is rather less. Generally, by churning at a low temperature, a drier, at higher temperatures a wetter, butter is obtained. The curd must be got rid of as completely as practicable if the product is to have reasonable keeping properties. To prevent rapid decomposition salt in various quantities is added. Considering that too lb (to gallons) of milk yield only from 31 to 4 lb of properly made butter, it is obvious that a great inducement exists to increase the yield either by leaving an undue proportion of water or curd, or by adding an excessive quantity of salt. In some parts .of See also:Ireland the butter is worked up with warm brine into so-called See also:pickle butter, whereby it becomes both watered and salted in one operation. Until lately, when the English Board of See also:Agriculture fixed a limit of 16 for the percentage of water that may legitimately be present in butter, this See also:kind of debasement could not easily be dealt with, but even now, where a legal water-limit exists, the addition of water either as such, or in the shape of milk or of condensed milk, is very commonly practised, more or less care being taken not to exceed the legalized limit. It is obvious that there is an ample margin of profit for the mixer who starts with Russian butter containing to% of water and See also:works it up with milk, fresh or condensed, to 16%, all the other milk-constituents, namely, sugar, curd and salt, thus introduced counting as " butter " in the eyes of the law. A very considerable number of butter-factors in London and in other parts of England thus dilute dry butter and consider this a legitimate operation so See also:long as they keep within the legal water-limit. See also:Nay, they may even exceed this, if only they give to their adulterated article a euphonious name, which, while legally notifying the admixture, raises in the mind of the ignorant purchaser, the belief that he is purchasing something particularly choice and excellent. " Milk-blended butter," with as much as 24 or more per cent of water and as little as 68 % of fat, is still largely sold to purchasers who think that they are obtaining extra value for their See also:money; several attempts to See also:deal with the See also:scandal by legislature having led to no result. The introduction of water into butter is also practised on a large See also:scale in the See also:United States, where a See also:branch of See also:trade in " renovated " butter has sprung up. In the States a considerable quantity of butter is produced by small farmers, and by the time the product comes into the market—the addition of chemical preservatives to prevent decomposition not being permitted—the butter has so much deteriorated in quality that it fetches a very low See also:price. It is bought up by factors, the fat melted out and washed, then again worked up with water and salt, care being generally taken to leave about 16% of water in the product, which finds a ready sale in England. It may here be pointed out that England imports an enormous quantity of butter from the See also:continent of See also:Europe, the colonies, See also:Siberia and See also:America, the imports, less exports, averaging during 1903–1906 no less than 203,300 tons annually, and the total See also:consumption (See also:home produce plus imports) 366,441 tons, the consumption per See also:head of population being 19.2 lb per annum. In butter, as in most other articles of food, adulteration with water is the most See also:common, most profitable, and least risky form of fraud. Great fortunes are thus made out of water. There is an altogether different class of butter adulteration which concerns itself with the substitution of other fatty matters for the whole or See also:par` of the really valuable portion of the butter- fat. See also:Margarine is the legalized and therefore legitimate butter-See also:surrogate, prepared by churning any suitable fat with milk into a cream, solidifying the latter by injection into See also:cold water and working the lumps together, precisely as is done in the case of the churned cream of milk. The substitution of margarine for butter is frequent, in spite of all legal enactments directed against this fraud, the semblance between butter and margarine being so great that a trained See also:palate is necessary to distinguish the two articles. Much more frequent and much more difficult to deal with is the sale of mixtures of butter and of margarine. In See also:order to show the difficulties inherent to this subject, it will be necessary to consider the chemical nature of butter-fat, and to compare it with other fats that may enter into the composition of margarine. Butter-fat is butter freed from water, curd and salt and extraneous matter. Like the greater number of natural fats it consists of a mixture of triglycerides, that is, combinations of See also:glycerin with substances of the nature of acids. These acids, in the case of fats other than butter-fat, are mainly oleic, palmitic and stearic acids. Butter-fat, in addition to these, contains other acids which sharply distinguish it from the vast See also:majority of other fats and, with the exception of See also:cocoa-See also:nut oil, from those substances which are or may be used to mix with butter, by the circumstance that a considerable proportion of its acids, when separated by chemical means from the glycerin, are readily soluble in water, or may be easily volatilized either alone or in a current of See also:steam, whereas the acids separated from the foreign fats are practically both insoluble and non-volatile. This fundamental principle serves at once to distinguish, for example, between butter and margarine, and has been made use of by analysts not only for this purpose but also with a view to deter-mine the relative amounts of butter and margarine in a mixture of these substances. Thus butter-fat contains about 88%, more or less, of "insoluble fatty acids," while margarine contains about 95.5%; 5 grammes of butter-fat when chemically decomposed yield an amount of volatile fatty acids which requires about 26 cubic centimetres (more or less) of deci-normal See also:alkali solution for neutralization, while margarine requires mostly less than r cubic centimetre (Wollny or Reichert-Meissl method). There are other See also:differences between the two kinds of fat: the specific gravity of butter-fat is higher than that of most other fats; its See also:power of refracting a See also:ray of See also:light is less; the " See also:iodine absorption " of butter-fat is smaller than that of many other fatty matters, and so on. But the composition of perfectly genuine butter-fat varies within somewhat wide limits. The milk from a cow fed on good and ample food in warm weather yields a fat that is rich in characteristic butter-constituents, while a poorly fed animal, kept in the open till late in the autumn, when the nights are cold, gives milk exceptionally poor in fat, the differences expressed as "insoluble fatty acids" lying between 86 and qr%, and in volatile acids, expressed as " Wollny " See also:numbers, between 18 and 36. Generally, therefore, summer butter is rich and autumn butter poor in volatile acids, or, geographically, Australian butter is more frequently high, Siberian often exceedingly low in these acids. The food of the animal also may, under certain conditions, yield a notable See also:pro-portion of its fatty matter to the butter; cows that have, for instance, been fed upon large quantities of See also:cotton-See also:seed cake yield butter in which the cotton-seed oil may be traced, and the same holds good with other fatty foods. All these, and other circumstances, combine to render the detection of small quantities of foreign fats that have been fraudulently added to butter almost a matter of impossibility. This is perfectly well known to unscrupulous butter dealers, and an enormous amount of adulteration is known to be practised. Even small amounts of adulteration could, nevertheless, often be discovered while margarine manufacturers employed considerable proportions of See also:vegetable See also:oils in their products, some of these oils furnishing characteristic chemical reactions allowing of their See also:discovery. Here some firms of margarine manufacturers came to the aid of the butter-mixer and produced margarine containing nothing but animal fat, so-called " neutral " margarine being freely offered for fraudulent purposes. There is one fat besides butter
which contains " volatile fatty acids," namely, cocoa-nut oil. Since means have been found to deprive this fat of its strong cocoa-nut odour and See also:taste, it has largely been used in the adulteration of butter, and margarine containing cocoa-nut oil and other fatty substances has freely been manufactured and sold
specially for butter adulteration. The seat of this class of fraud is mainly in See also: This oil yields a characteristic red colour when it, or any mixture containing it, is shaken with an hydrochloric solution of either sugar or furfurol, and is intended to serve as an "See also:ear-marking" substance. The addition of a little starch or See also:arrowroot, easily discoverable chemically or by the See also:microscope, is also required by Belgium, but in the See also:absence of any See also:international agreement these ear-marking additions are of little See also:practical use. It is, however, interesting to point out that,, while complying with the regulations of the governments, margarine manufacturers of the countries named have found an easy way of rendering the regulations quite nugatory: they add methyl-See also:orange, a colouring matter which itself produces a red colour with acid and quite obscures the red colour obtained by the official test for sesame oil. Cheese may be legitimately made from full-milk, milk that has been enriched by addition of cream, or from milk that has been more or less skimmed. It varies consequently very widely in composition, so-called cream cheese containing not less than 6o% of fat; Stilton upwards of 40%; See also:Cheddar about 30%; Dutch, Parmesan and some Swiss and Danish less than 20%. The amount of water varies with the kind and age of the cheese and may be as low as 20 and as high as 6o%. Under these circumstances it is impracticable to See also:lay down any hard-and-fast rules as to the composition of cheese. When, however, cheese is made from skimmed milk and the fat is replaced by margarine, as is the case in so-called " filled " or margarine cheeses, the sale of these amounts to an adulteration, unless the presence of the foreign substance is declared. It may at first sight appear See also:strange that the See also:person who robs milk of its most valuable portion, the cream, may prepare a legitimate article of food from the See also:remainder, while he who to that remainder adds something to replace the fat does an illegitimate act, but it must be taken into See also:consideration that the replacement is frequently made with fraudulent See also:intent and that the ordinary purchaser cannot by taste or See also:smell distinguish the adulterated from the genuine article, while there is no difficulty in recognizing skim-milk cheese. Lard.—Between the years i88o and 1890 a gigantic fraudulent trade in adulterated lard was carried on from the United States. A great proportion of the See also:American lard imported into England was found to consist of a mixture of more or less real lard with cotton-seed oil and See also:beef-stearine. Cotton-seed oil is one of the cheapest vegetable oils fit for human consumption, beef-stearine the hard residue obtained in the manufacture of oleo-margarine after the more fluid fat has been pressed from the beef fat. These mixtures were made so skilfully by large See also:Chicago manufacturers that for some years they escaped detection. A See also:bill introduced in 1888 into the American See also:Senate to stop this imposture directed general attention to the subject, and energetic See also:measures, taken both in America and in England, quickly put an end to it. From the memorial presented in the United States Senate in support of the bill, it appeared that in about 1887 the See also:annual See also:production of lard in the States was estimated at 600 million pounds, of which more than 35% was adulterated. Compounds were made containing only a small quantity of lard or none at all, yet were sold as " choice refined lard " or under other eulogistic names. Many lard substitutes, chiefly made from cotton-seed oil, are still met with, but are mostly sold in a legitimate manner. From the germ of See also:maize—which must be separated from the starchy portion of the seed before the latter can be manufactured into glucose—the oil (maize-oil) is ex-pressed, and this now is used as a lard adulterant, its detection being far more difficult than that of cotton-seed oil. Oils.—For very many years all oils were considered to be composed of olein, that is to say, the triglyceride of oleic acid, with small quantities of impurities; chemists, therefore, to distinguish oils of various origin, confined themselves to tests for these impurities, employing so-called colour reactions based upon the change of colour of the oil by various reagents such as sulphuric, nitric or phosphoric acids. These reactions were exceedingly indefinite and unsatisfactory and oil adulteration was prevalent and almost undiscoverable. It has beep found, however, that the old ideas concerning the believed uniformity in the nature and constitution of oils were erroneous. Some oils, indeed, do consist of olein, See also:almond oil being a type, others contain a glyceride of an acid which is distinguished from oleic acid by containing one See also:molecule less See also:hydrogen, called linoleic acid. To this class belong cotton-seed and sesame oils. Others again include a glyceride of an acid containing still less hydrogen, linolenic acid (See also:linseed and similar drying oils), and lastly the See also:liver oils are still poorer in hydrogen. These various acids or the oils contained in them combine with various percentages of iodine, oleic acid absorbing the smallest proportion (about 8o %). For each oil the iodine absorption is a fairly constant quantity; this number, together with the determination of the amount of See also:caustic alkali needed for complete saponification, the thermal rise with strong sulphuric acid or with See also:bromine, the See also:refraction of light and the specific gravity, now enable the analyst to form a See also:fair See also:idea of the nature of any sample under examination, and, in consequence of this advance in knowledge, adulteration of oils has much declined. The most common adulterant of the more valuable oils, like See also:olive oil, is cotton-seed oil. The oils expressed from the sesame seed or the See also:earth-nut (arachis oil) are also frequently admixed with olive oil. Almond oil is adulterated with the closely allied oils from the See also:peach-See also:kernel or the See also:pine-seed. Deodorized paraffin See also:hydrocarbons also enter sometimes as adulterants into edible oils. There is, however, a marked improvement in the purity of oils generally.
Fleur and See also:bread as sold in England are almost invariably genuine. The old forms of adulteration, such as the use of See also:alum for -the production of a See also: One single case of such substitution analogous to the proverbial but probably mythical sanding of sugar occurred between 188o and 1905 in England, some crushed See also:marble having been found in a See also:consignment of See also:German sugar in a large See also:British See also:establishment. There have, however, been numerous prosecutions for a fraud of another class, namely, the substitution of dyed beetroot sugar for See also:Demerara sugar. Formerly the sugar produced by the old imperfect and wasteful methods of manufacture was more or less yellow or brown from adhering See also:molasses. Sugar, as now obtained, be it from cane or See also:beet, is white; yet the public is so wedded to its customs that white sugar except as lump or See also:castor sugar does not find a ready sale. The manufacturer is obliged to colour his product yellow by artificial means, that is to say, either by the addition of a little See also:aniline dye, harmless in itself, or, as in the See also:West Indies, mostly by the use of a small quantity of chloride of tin, so-called " See also:bloomer. " See also:European refined beet-sugar coloured with aniline dye to distinguish it from Demerara cane sugar is sold under the name of " yellow crystals. " These, although richer in real sugar than Demerara, are without the delicious aroma of cane See also:syrup which belongs to the latter, and are not infrequently fraudulently substituted for Demerara.
See also:Marmalade and Jams.—In the preparation of marmalade and jams, which articles were for a long time made from See also:fruit and sugar only, a part of the sugar, from 10 to 15 %, is often now replaced by starch glucose. This material, consisting mainly of a mixture of dextrose and dextrin, is of much less sweetening power than ordinary sugar and mostly cheaper. It is said to prevent the See also:crystallization which frequently used to occur in some jams. The use of glucose has been declared by the High See also:Court (See also: Artificial colouring matters and chemical preservatives are almost constant ingredients of jams. To such fruits which, when boiled with sugar, do not readily yield a jelly (strawberries, raspberries) an addition of See also:apple juice is frequently made in the manufacture of jam, without much objection; the pulp of the apple, however, is sometimes bodily added as an adulterant. See also:Tea.—In consequence of the proviso contained in the Food Act of 1875 that tea was to be examined by the Customs on importation, such tea as was found to be admixed with other substance or exhausted tea being refused entry into England, the adulteration of tea has been virtually suppressed. Great numbers of samples are annually examined by the Customs, and a not inconsiderable proportion of these are condemned because they are either damaged or dirty, their use for the manufacture of theine being permitted, only See also:sound and genuine tea coming to the British public. The practice, very common a See also:generation ago, of artificially colouring tea See also:green with a mixture of Prussian See also:blue and turmeric, has quite vanished with the decline of the consumption of green tea. See also:Coffee.—A few cases of artificially manufactured coffee berries, made from See also:flour and See also:chicory, have been observed, but it would not be fair to speak of a practice of adulteration regarding coffee berries. Not infrequently coffee is roasted with the addition of some fatty matter or paraffin or sugar, to give to the roasted coffee a glossy appearance. These additions as a rule are small in amount. Ground coffee is often sold adulterated with chicory, sugar or caramel. Other adulterations, reference to which is found in literature relating to the second See also:half of the 19th See also:century, do not seem now to occur. Cocoa and See also:chocolate are liable to a number of fraudulent or questionable additions. In the cheaper qualities of cocoa-See also:powder sugar and starch—the latter in the form of See also:sago flour or arrowroot—are admixed in very large proportions, and, in order to give to such mixtures something like the appearance of genuine cocoa, red See also:oxide of iron is added. This almost invariably is more or less arsenical. Cocoa-See also:shell, a perfectly valueless material, is mixed in a very finely ground state with cocoa of the commoner kind. Owing to the enormous increase in the consumption of so-called chocolate-creams, which are masses of sugar See also:confectionery coated with a cocoa-paste containing a large proportion of the fat of cocoa (cocoa-butter), the quantity of cocoa-butter that is obtained in the manufacture of cocoa-powders is no longer sufficient to See also:cover the demand. Substitutes of cocoa-butter prepared from cocoa-nut oil are manufactured on a large scale, and all enter without See also:acknowledgment into chocolates or chocolate creams. As there are not any regulations touching the composition of chocolate, sugar or starch or both are used in chocolate manufacture, and especially in that of chocolate powders in often excessive quantities. In the Dutch mode of manufacture of cocoa-powders an addition of from 3% to 4% of an alkaline salt is made for the purpose of rendering the cocoa " soluble, " or, more strictly, for putting it into such a See also:physical See also:condition that it does not See also:settle in the See also:cup. This addition does not, as is often alleged, render the cocoa alkaline, and is not made with any fraudulent object; several countries, however, have passed regulations fixing the maximum of the addition which may thus legitimately be made. Most of the cocoa-powders sold in England are prepared in accordance with the Dutch method. See also:Wine.—If cinder this See also:term a beverage is understood which consists of nothing but fermented See also:grape juice, a great proportion of the wine consumed' in England is not genuine wine. All See also:port and See also:sherry comes into commerce after having received an addition of spirit, generally made from potatoes; port and sherry would not be what they are and as they have been for generations unless they were thus fortified. The practice can now hardly be classed among adulterations. A well-fermented wine made from the juice of properly matured grapes does not require any added See also:alcohol in order that it should keep; imperfectly made wine is liable to turn sour; the addition of alcohol prevents this. See also:French wines, both red and white, are hardly subject to adulteration. In wine-growing countries like See also:France wine is so cheap and plentiful that it would be difficult to manufacture an See also:imitation beverage cheaper than 'genuine wine. In Germany the conditions are different, the districts from which those wines that are exported are nominally derived being small and insufficient to cover the See also:world's demands. The addition of sugar solution or of starch sugar is allowed within limits by German law, which not even requires that notification to the purchaser be made of the addition, and it is notorious that a very large proportion of the wine sold under the name of " hock " and some of that coming from the Moselle are thus diluted, sugared and lengthened, or, in See also:plain terms, adulterated. Wines from the See also:Palatinate which under their own names would not sell out of Germany are often passed off as hocks. As there is but little German red wine the law also permits this to be lengthened by the addition of white wine. For the removal of part of the acid from sour wine produced in bad vintages the addition of precipitated chalk is also permitted. Attention has been See also:drawn in England to the very serious fact that German wines sometimes contain salts of See also:zinc in small quantities. These are introduced by a fining See also:agent protected by a German patent, consisting of solutions of sulphate of zinc and See also:potassium ferrocyanide, which, when added together in " suitable proportions," produce a precipitate of zinc-ferrocyanide which carries down all turbidity in the wine and is supposed to leave neither zinc nor ferrocyanide behind in solution. As a matter of fact, one or other of these highly objectionable substances is almost invariably left behind. The use of artificial colouring matters in wines does not appear now to occur. See also:Beer cannot be said to be adulterated, although it is well known that materials often very different from these which the general public believe to be the proper raw materials for the manufacture of beer, namely, water, See also:malt and hops, are largely used. By the Customs and Inland See also:Revenue Act 1885, sec. 4, beer is defined as any liquor " which is made or sold as a de-scription of beer, or as a substitute for beer, and which on analysis of a sample thereof shall be found to contain more than 2% of See also:proof spirit. " That is to say, beer is legally anything that is sold as beer provided that it has 2% of proof spirit. There is not any restriction upon the materials that are employed provided that they are not positively poisonous. For Inland Revenue purposes, however, a See also:prohibition has been made against the admixture of anything to beer after it has been manufactured, and See also:excise prosecutions of publicans for watering beer are not infrequent. Formerly there was a restriction on the amount of salt that might be present in beer; this no longer exists. On the other hand it cannot be said that any injurious materials are being used by brewers, the See also:brewing See also:industry being, broadly speaking, most efficiently supervised and controlled by scientifically trained men. The addition to beer of bisulphate of See also:lime, which is almost universally practised in England, is not an adulteration in the ordinary acceptation of the term. The thin bear which has taken the See also:place of the strong See also:ales of the past generation contains an insufficiency of alcohol to ensure keeping qualities, and it is difficult to see how modern English beers could be sold without the addition of some sort of preservative. Non-Alcoholic Drinks.—The same remark applies to a good many of so-called See also:temperance beverages. Of these again it is hardly proper to speak as liable to adulteration. So-called soda-water is very often devoid of soda and is only carbonated water, but the term " soda-water " is a survival from the times when this was a Medicinal beverage and when soda was prescribed to be present in definite amount by the See also:pharmacopoeia. Potash and especially lithia See also:waters very frequently contain only See also:mere traces of the substances from which they derive their names. The sweetness of See also:ginger-beer and often of lemonade is no longer due to sugar, as used to be the case, but to saccharine (the toluol derivative), which is possessed of sweetness but not of nourishment; and since, as an antiseptic, it may affect the digestion, its use in these beverages is to be deprecated. See also:Vinegar ought to be the product obtained by the successive alcoholic and acetous See also:fermentation of a sugary liquor. When this is obtained from malt or from malt admixed with other See also:grain the vinegar is called a malt vinegar. Often, however, acid liquors pass under that name which have been made by the See also:action of a mineral acid upon any starchy material such as maize or See also:tapioca, with or without the addition of beet sugar. Dilute acetic acid, obtained from See also:wood, is very frequently used as an adulterant of vinegar. When properly purified such acid is unobjectionable physiologically, but it is improper to sell it as vinegar. Adulteration of vinegar by sulphuric or other acids, formerly a common practice, is now exceedingly rare. See also:Spirits.—By the Sale of Food and Drugs Act See also:Amendment Act, See also:whisky, See also:brandy and See also:rum must not be sold of a less alcoholic strength than 25 under proof (corresponding to 43%0 of alcohol by volume), and See also:gin 35 under proof (37% alcohol). For many years the only form of adulteration recorded by public analysts related to the alcoholic strength, the undue dilution of spirits with water being, of course, a profitable form of fraud. No addition of any injurious matters to commercial spirits has been observed. It was, however, well known that a very considerable proportion of so-called brandies was not the product of the grape, but that spirits of other origin were frequently admixed with grape brandy. A See also:report which appeared in 1902 in the See also:Lancet on " Brandy, its production at See also:Cognac and the See also:supply of genuine brandy to this See also:country, " served as a stimulus to public analysts to analyse commercial brandies, and convictions of retailers for selling so-called brandy followed. It was shown that genuine brandy made in the orthodox See also:style from wine in pot-stills contained a considerable proportion of substances other than alcohol to which the flavour and character of brandy is due; among these flavouring materials combinations of a variety of organic acids with See also:alcohols (chemically described as " See also:esters ") pre-dominate. For the present a brandy is not considered genuine unless it contains in roo,000 parts (calculated See also:free from water) at least 6o parts of " esters. " As a consequence a trade has sprung up in artificially produced esters, sold for the purpose of adding them to any spirit to fraudulently convert it into a liquor passing as " brandy. " The inquiries into the nature of brandy led to investigations into whisky. Formerly whisky was made from grain only and obtained by pot-still See also:distillation, that form of " still yielding a product containing a comparatively large proportion of volatile matters other than alcohol. For many years past, however, improved stills--so-called patent stills—have been adopted, enabling manufacturers to obtain a purer and far stronger product, saving See also:carriage and storage. Attempts were made in England in 1905–1907 to restrict the term "whisky" solely to the pot-still product. But the question was referred in 1908 to a Royal See also:Commission which reported against such a restriction. A common form of adulteration of whisky is the addition to it of spirit made on the Continent mainly from potatoes. This spirit is almost pure alcohol and is quite devoid of the injurious properties which are popularly but falsely attributed to it. The substitution of this—a very cheap and quite flavourless material—for one which owes its value more to its flavour than to its alcoholic contents, is clearly fraudulent. Drugs.—To the adulteration of drugs but very brief reference can here be made. It is satisfactory to record that but very few of the great number of drugs included in the pharmacopoeias are liable to serious adulteration, and there are very few cases on record during recent years where real fraudulent adulteration was involved. The numerous preparations used by druggists are mostly prepared in factories under competent and careful supervision, and the standards laid down in the British Pharmacopoeia are, broadly speaking, carefully adhered to. The occurrence of unlooked-for impurities, such as that of See also:arsenic in See also:sodium-phosphate or in various iron preparations, can hardly be included in the See also:list of adulterations. In the making up of prescriptions, however, a good deal of laxity is displayed; thus, the See also:Local See also:Government Board report of the years 1904–1905 refers to an instance of a See also:quinine mixture containing 23 grains of quinine-sulphate instead of 240 grains. A certain See also:latitude in the making up of physicians' prescriptions must necessarily be allowed, but much too frequently the rea#onable limit of a 1o% See also:error over or under the amount of See also:drug prescribed is exceeded. Certain perishable drugs, such as sweet spirits of See also:nitre, or others liable to contain from their mode of manufacture metallic impurities, form the subjects of frequent prosecutions. The See also:element of intentional fraud which characterizes many forms of food adulteration is happily generally absent in the case of drugs. (O. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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