32 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 336 



by volume. Such cider would be easily recognized as "hard" since practically 

 all the sugar of the cider would have to be used up to produce 7 percent of 

 alcohol. Sweet cider would rarely, if ever, attain such an alcoholic content with- 

 out the addition of sugar. 



Apparently no limitations are made by the state on the alcoholic content of 

 cider if sold at wholesale by the original manufacturers, or on cider made by 

 farmers from apples raised by them "in the season of, or next preceding such 

 sales", if the cider is not drunk on the premises. As mentioned in the preceding 

 paragraph, the sugar content of the cider would limit the alcoholic content to 

 8 percent by weight at the very most. Generally speaking, the alcoholic con- 

 tent of a fully fermented cider is estimated at one-half the percentage of total 

 soluble solids (mostly sugar) in the freshly pressed juice. For example, an 

 apple juice containing 12 percent solids will give a cider containing approxi- 

 mately 6 percent alcohol. Cider manufactured by farmers in Massachusetts 

 from apples other than those produced in their own orchards, or by other 

 manufacturers, must not contain more than 3 percent alcohol by weight. Such 

 cider must not be drunk on the premises. 



These regulations do not interfere with the manufacture and sale of sweet 

 cider, since with modern methods of preservation such as pasteurization, cold 

 storage, or use of sodium benzoate, it is easy enough to prevent cider from 

 attaining an alcoholic content of 3 percent. Even if it is desired to produce a 

 sparkling sweet cider, the small amount of alcohol produced in the process of 

 natural carbonation would be much less than the limit set by the State Alcoholic 

 Beverages Control Commission, provided the proper procedure was followed. 



SPRAY RESIDUE PROBLEM 



Arsenic and lead spray residues often persist on apples after picking. Only 

 a small part of these toxic substances is removed by ordinary fruit washing 

 methods. Commercially, apples are often washed in solutions containing from 

 0.5 to 1.0 percent hydrochloric acid. This treatment is effective in residue 

 removal. Where visible residue is present on the fruit an acid wash is desirable. 

 Of course only a part of the arsenic and lead passes into the cider. Experi- 

 mental tests for arsenic on several lots of cider and apple butter manufactured 

 from representative Massachusetts-grown apples showed only traces of this 

 element. However, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has seized at 

 least one consignment of boiled cider which contained excessive arsenic and 

 lead. The apples were grown in the Pacific Northwest where the spray residue 

 problem is more serious because of scanty rainfall. 



In general, except possibly in the case of concentrated apple products, it is 

 not believed that sufficient toxic residue will be present on Eastern-grown 

 apples to constitute a health hazard. 



NUTRITIVE VALUE OF CIDER 



Apple cider should be sold on its merits as a pleasant, refreshing beverage, not 

 primarily because of its nutritional properites. However, it is deemed advisable 

 to include here such information as is available on the nutritive value of cider. 



Smith and Fellers (24) have shown that there is a wide variation in the vita- 

 min C content of 21 varieties of Massachusetts grown apples. Seasonal or 

 other variations, except storage, caused little change in the vitamin C content 

 in any one variety. There is no apparent correlation between the vitamin C 

 content of an apple variety and the chromosome number of that variety. 



