PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 23 



ADULTERATION OF FRUIT PRESERVES AND OTHER FOODS. 



BY PROF. R. C. KEDZIE, MICHIGAN AGKIOULTURAL COLLEGE. 



-'3 



If a man sells you anything as good as what you ask for, but yet entirely 

 different, are you cheated? asked Mr Kedzie. Some contend not. Mr. 

 Havemeyer said to George Geddes, in reference to refined sugar, that 

 he could put in such an amount of glucose that no one could tell the dif- 

 ference, and net a profit of $1,500 per day. So, too, a man may say his 

 butterine is as pure and wholesome as genuine butter, and therefore why 

 not sell it as butter? With the man who will ask such questions there is 

 no use for argument. He will sell it if he can. 



In Chicago, twenty carloads of corn per day are turned into starch and 

 glucose. The latter is now so refined as to be available for adulteration, 

 whereas it was not so originally. As well might it be argued that peas 

 may be sold for coffee and that there is no harm in so doing. One brand 

 of coffee, with a prize in each package, was analyzed and found to contain 

 but twelve per cent, of coffee. The correct principle is, that every article 

 should be sold uader its proper name. Let glucose be sold, but as glucose; 

 let butterine be sold to those who wish to eat it, but as butterine, not as 

 butter. In five pounds of glucose there is the sweetness of only three 

 pounds of sugar. Let anyone have it who wants it, but he should not be 

 deceived as to what it is. 



As to vinegar, the manufacturers of it claim that their article is of great 

 purity because it has so much acetic acid and so little foreign substance. 

 Fruit vinegar does have acetic acid, but it has other constituents which 

 give it flavor. Acetic acid is white, and these manufacturers add burned 

 sugar and other things to give it color and flavor. Cider vinegar contains 

 certain products of fermentation, including acetic ether, which give its 

 peculiar flavor and odor. The Alden company's vinegar contains 2| per 

 cent of acetic acid, and they say that if they put in the legal amount it 

 would b8 so strong that no one could use it. This is an excuse. Such 

 vinegar is made for three cents per gallon and sells for twenty cents. 

 Unless this fraud is checked, no one will be able to make cider vinegar at 

 a profit. 



Turning to the subject of jellies. Prof. Kedzie showed samples of apple, 

 raspberry, blackberry, and currant jelly, the latter colored with an aline. 

 But, said he, all are from the same kettle; only the flavors are different. 

 He passed around the currant jelly for inspection. It was said to be from 

 Pasadena, California. A pail of it, twenty-five pounds, may be bought for 

 seventy- five cents. It could not be sent from California for that amount, 

 even if made and packed for nothing. How can this be done, when a man 

 using fruit and counting its cost as nothing, can not compete? Because 

 in these jellies there is not a particle of fruit. The acid in them is sul- 

 phuric; a few of them may contain some other acid, but all have sulphuric 

 acid in their composition. The jellies are made from starch — they come 

 from the cornfield, not from the orchard. 



Mr. Kedzie made tests of these jellies for sulphuric acid and starch. 

 There is no starch in the apple, yet the so-called apple jelly, when to it was 



