590 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



WHEN DOES A FOOD BECOME A LUXUKY? 



By Pkofessok E. H. S. BAILEY 



UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 



IN the rapid expansion which is taking place in this country, and in 

 attempting to adjust ourselves to these changed conditions, and 

 to the higher price of foodstuffs, there is danger that we forget to 

 differentiate as carefully as we formerly did, between a nutritious food, 

 which is purchased for its food value, and other products, also good 

 enough as foods, but which are sold at prices which bring them within 

 the domain of luxuries. 



In buying delicately flavored candies or chocolates at from 40 to 

 80 cents per pound, although it is recognized, by those who think about 

 it, that the chocolate and sugar are excellent food material, no one buys 

 such things as food. They are purchased as luxuries pure and simple, 

 because their flavor pleases the palate. Chocolate and sugar are also 

 sold as food, or to be used as a constituent of foods, at a price so low 

 that they can properly be used in the preparation of foods and bever- 

 ages. In this case their food value is more closely proportionate to 

 their cost. 



Although a definition is in some cases a stumbling block, we ven- 

 ture to say that, in case of foods, a luxury is a substance that may have 

 some nutritive value, but which has a low food value in proportion to 

 the cost while, on the other hand, a food has, or should have, a compara- 

 tively high food value in proportion to its cost. 



Some foods are expensive on account of their rarity or because 

 they are out of season, some because of the cost of the original material 

 from which they are made, some because they are brought from such a 

 distance that the transportation charges are high, and others on ac- 

 count of the expense attending the manufacture. 



In general, manufactured foods cost more than those upon which 

 but little labor has been bestowed to prepare them for market. This 

 is well illustrated in the case of ordinary granulated 'sugar which fre- 

 quently retails at five cents per pound r while (although often made from 

 the same " stock ") " cube " sugar, which has been sawn into blocks, and 

 " powdered " sugar, which has been ground and perhaps bolted, sells 

 at ten cents per pound. The original materials in a five-cent loaf of 

 bread would probably not cost three cents, yet we recognize that to 

 make the bread and bake it and deliver it to the consumer costs some- 



