SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



Ill 



Coloring. — It has long been the practice with some to color 

 cheese artificially, and fashion still demands it in the case of those 

 varieties long known in market as possessing a high color. It 

 would for a while be diflScult to convince customers who have 

 been in the habit of deeming a high color essential, that the cheese 

 would be better with its natural color only. The ingredient chiefly 

 used for this purpose is Annotto, a substance prepared from the 

 seeds of the Bixa Orellana, and is made chiefly in Cayenne and 

 Brazil. The seeds are enclosed in a pod, and surrounded with the 

 coloring matter. To obtain the latter the contents of the pods are 

 removed, covered with water, and left for some weeks or even 

 months, until the whole becomes putrid. It is then worked through 

 sieves, and after the coloring matter has settled, and some water is 

 poured off", it is boiled down in coppers until it assumes the proper 

 consistence, when it is ready for market. But probably not one 

 parcel in a hundred ever reaches market until it has been highly 

 and extensively adulterated. Out of moi'e than twenty samples, 

 obtained in part from retailers and in part from importers, not one 

 was found pure upon being analyzed — a majority were adulterated 

 more than one-half in weight and bulk, and many more than three- 

 fourths. The substances used to adulterate it comprise red lead, 

 Venetian red, turmeric, salt, copper, gypsum, flour, chalk, train 

 oil, and about a dozen other abominations. 



There is no evidence that the use of pure annotto is particularly 

 objectionable in cheese ; at least, not more so than the employment 

 of a small amount of any other useless, harmless, nasty substance 

 would be ; but in the fact that the article usually sold is grossly 

 adulterated, and often with poisonous ingredients, we have a suffi- 

 cient reason for wholly discarding it, and the more as at best it 

 can do no possible good. It has never been much used in Maine 

 for coloring cheese, and it is to be hoped that it never will be. 



Exposure to the air heightens the color of cooked curd, and by 

 continued exposure before, during and after salting, before putting 

 to press, a light golden or rich cream color, the most desirable as 

 well as usually the most saleable shade, may be easily obtained. 

 The temperature of the curd when put in the hoop may be from 

 60° to 65°. An error of some is to cool the curd by means of cold 

 water or whey, which impoverishes it by washing out some of its 

 richness. The better method is by stirring and exposure to the 

 air, which while it cools, imparts a fine color also. 



