124 POODS AND POOD ADULTERANTS. 



The statistics of the manufacture of this kind of chccso as gathered from various 

 sources, and partly by Inspector Munsell, are about as follows : Thirteen of the u dis- 

 integrators" are in operation, all in this State and none elsewhere. The production 

 of cheese at the twenty-three factories engaged in the manufacture in this State dur- 

 ing the six months ending November 1, 1881, was stated to amount to 800,000 pounds. 

 None is made in other States, although it was stated before the Assembly Committee 

 on Public Health, 1 in 1881, that it was made at the West. Before the same com- 

 mittee it was stated that some of the cheese was sold in New York City for consump- 

 tion, but according to the best of ray information, most if not all of it is exported. 

 It is claimed that it brings from eight to ton cents a pound when full-cream cheeses 

 sell at twelve cents, and " full-skim" cheeses at four or five cents; but New York 

 dealers tell the inspector that the cheese brings but four cents a pound when its true 

 character is known, and that it is for exportation only. The inspectors have not been 

 able to find any cheese in the city markets which they had any reason to suppose to 

 be lard cheese. 



In two respects this kind of cheese can be considered as a fraud under the new food 

 and drug law, unless sold under its distinctive name. It contains loss fat, and fat, of 

 a cheaper kind, than the ordinary fnll-cream cheese contains, and, secondly, there 

 are some grounds for the belief that the fat which is substituted for the butter fat is 

 less wholesome than that. Rubner 2 in some investigations on the assimilation 

 of various articles of food by the human subject found that lard was less digestible 

 than butter ; and the objection to oleomargarine butter on the ground of its indigest- 

 ibility as compared with genuine butter may apply perhaps with more force to lard 

 cheese; it only remains to determine by experiment whether the digestibility of the 

 substances is increased by the operation of emulsiouizing. 



Skim cheese (" anti-huff cheese ") is made, as is well known, from "full-skimmed'? 

 milk, without any attempt to replace the fat removed for butter. It is doubtful 

 whether such cheeses are anywhere sold in a way to deceive consumers as to their 

 character. To prove the quality of these cheeses, and especially to prevent them 

 from puffing out, or " huffing," as it is technically called, from the abnormal genera- 

 tion of gases in the interior before they become fully ripe, patented <c anti-mottling'' 

 and " auti-huffing " extracts are employed, consisting, it is claimed, only of caustic 

 and carbonated alkali, saltpeter, and a little annat to, for coloring, dissolved in water. 

 A qualitative analysis of one of these extracts by both Mr. Munsell and myself coii- 

 lirm this claim in one case ; but another extract, said to be used at the West, was found 

 to consist almost entirely of borax, which is a well-known antiseptic. The quantity 

 of alkali and saltpeter said to be added to the cheese in this operation is small, in 

 all less than five ounces to the milk and sour buttermilk for 100 pounds of cheese^ 

 and a portion of this must remain in solution in the whey ; and there is no satisfactory 

 evidence that such a quantity of borax as could be added to the cheese without affect- 

 ing its taste would be prejudicial to the health for any ordinary quantity of cheese 

 eaten. Gruber 3 shows that when this substance is taken into the system it seems to 

 leave the organism very quickly and without affecting the system in any injurious 

 manner. 



As to the statistics of the manufacture of " anti-huff cheese," it is stated that in the 

 most important section of this State for dairy products 4,500 cheeses of the best quality 

 were made this year of skimmed milk and sour buttermilk with the aid of this extract. 

 Before the assembly committee * it was affirmed that this cheese is consumed to 



1 Fenner Committee. Testimony taken before Assembly Committee on Public 

 Health in the matter of investigation into the subject of the manufacture and sale of 

 oleomargarine-butter and lard-cheese. Hon. M. M. Fenner, chairman, 1881. 



2 Zeits. fur Biologic, vol. 15, p. 115. Bied. Ccntralblatt, 1881, p. 394. 



3 Ber. Chem. Gesel., vol. 14, p. 2290. Zeits. fur Biologic, vol. 16, p. 195. 



<Loc. tit. 



