ADULTERATION OF JELLIES AND EXTRACTS 101 



Oleomargarine. The fat of cream is expensive and it is often 

 replaced by cheaper fats. Melted lard, oil pressed from beef 

 fat, and cottonseed oil, mixed with a little milk and churned, 

 give oleomargarine, a product similar to butter in texture 

 and chemical composition but much cheaper. In order to give 

 the oleomargarine taste and flavor a little butter is worked 

 through it. It should not be sold as butter, but should bear 

 a label stating its true character. All fats are more or less 

 similar and oleomargarine made from good lard, beef suet, and 

 cottonseed oil is entirely wholesome and almost as nutritious 

 as expensive butter. It is certainly preferable to poor rancid 

 butter and is widely used in institutions and hotels for cooking. 



Olive oil and cottonseed oil. For many years the most 

 popular oil for table use has been olive oil, but it is safe to say 

 that little of the oil now purchased under that name is genuine. 

 Most edible vegetable oils resemble olive oil in appearance and 

 can be mixed with it to about 25 per cent without altering its 

 flavor. The oil which is generally used as an adulterant of olive 

 oil is cottonseed oil. It is wholesome and nutritious but is much 

 cheaper than olive oil, and the mixture of olive and cottonseed 

 oils should not be sold for the high price demanded for " pure 

 lucca oil." Olive oil is pressed from olives, the fruit of the olive 

 tree; cottonseed oil is pressed from the seeds of the cotton 

 plant ; olive oil has the better flavor, but otherwise there is no 

 reason why cottonseed oil should not be used for salads and all 

 cooking purposes. 



Adulteration of jellies and extracts. Home-made jellies are 

 made by boiling down pure fruit juices with sugar to a thick 

 mass; commercial jellies, however, are frequently made by 

 boiling a small amount of fruit in water and thickening the mix- 

 ture with starch or glucose. Very often none of the actual 

 fruit specified by the label is present, and the jelly consists of 

 poor apples, or just their skins and cores, boiled down with 



