starch in Green Fruits. 155 



The Pennsylvania department of agriculture,^- under the 

 title, "A Chemical Studj^ of the Apple and Its Products," gives 

 the following in reference to starch in apples: 



Very green apples 4 . 14% 



Green apples 3 . 67 



Ripe 0.17 



Overripe apples 



It would hardly be supposed that green apples would be used 

 for making evaporated or dried apples. One sample of jelly 

 labeled as made from corn sirup and apple, which was in reality 

 made from corn sirup and apple trimmings, contained .7 of 1 

 percent of starch. As this jelly contained 34 percent of water, 

 the starch paste was about a 2 percent solution. This prepara- 

 tion of dry starch goes quite a way towards thickening a prod- 

 uct. It is not assumed, however, that the manufacturer of a 

 fruit jelly desires to have starch as one of the constituents of 

 his product, for starch ferments readily, and would tend to 

 make the product spoil more quickly. The starch is, of course, 

 a cooked starch in the finished product, so it would not be easy 

 to tell what its source was, whether from the fruit used or 

 from some other source. It seems, therefore, that it will be 

 necessary to allow these commercial jellies to come on the 

 market, even if they do contain small quantities of starch. In 

 case they are made from apple trimmings the fact should be 

 stated on the label. We shall, at the proper season, test some 

 green fruits to learn something more definite as to their starch 

 content. 



University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



3. Bulletin Penn. Dept. Agr. 38. 



