No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 93 



FLAVORING EXTRACTS 



Twenty-three samples of flavoring extracts and essences were 

 examined, but no cases relating to these products were terminated 

 during the year. The presence on the market of numerous brands 

 of compound and modified products of this class is still very mani- 

 fest, but the labeling of these inferior products has been brought 

 more largely into conformity with the requirements of the law, so 

 that the consumer who reads the label carefully should not be de- 

 ceived as ti) I he nature of the package contents. 



BAKERY PRODUCTS 



Sevenly-five samples of bread, cakes, pies and puddings were ex- 

 amined by the Bureau chemists during the last year. The chief 

 points in the examination related to the presence or absence in these 

 products of eggs, egg substitutes, preservatives and artificial color- 

 ing. During the same period there were terminated 9 cases, brought 

 because of the presence in cakes of artificial coloring matter, so used 

 as to indicate the presence of eggs in large quantity when, as a matter 

 of fact, they were either entirely absent or were in abnormally low 

 proportion. 



BREAKFAST FOODS 



Owing to the discovery in earlier years of too frequent cases in 

 which the stocks of these products appearing in the fall on the 

 shelves of the retailer exhibited evidences of the attack of insects 

 during the warmer months, a careful examination of these products 

 was made during the fall months of 1911, after the warning notice, 

 mentioned in the preliminary part of this report, had been given to 

 the trade. Twenty-five samples of these foods were purchased, the 

 agents limiting themselves to the purchase of packages whose appear- 

 ance led to the supposition that there might be something wrong with 

 the contents, and where there was no evidence that the retailer had, 

 himself, thoroughly examined his stock of these goods, so as to elimi- 

 nate from them undesirable materials. Only a single case, however, 

 was terminated during the year, because of the sale of a breakfast 

 food which had been invaded by insects. This indicates a very fair 

 condition of the retail stocks after they had been sorted by the 

 retailers, with the rejection of suspicious packages. 



CANDY 



During the past year a very large amount of work has been done 

 upon the candy sold in the State, the total number of samples ex- 

 amined having been 612, representing a very great variety of ma- 

 terials, more especially of those cheaper grades, the so-called "penny 

 goods," such as are sold to school children. Prof. Charles A. LaWall 

 has prepared a bulletin (No. 216) setting forth the facts obtained 

 in this examination. Examinations made a few years ago showed that 

 many such candies contained, at that time, sulphur dioxide, intro- 

 duced in part with the glucose used as an ingredient, and also in 

 commercial preparations sold as stiffeners or hardeners, made largely 

 from sulphites. The present examination of these products shows a 

 greatly improved condition with respect to this adulterant. There 

 were terminated during the year G cases in which the charge was 



