56 



tective Union, on the other hand, claims that such adulterations exist, 

 and that acids are used and machine-made cans with injurious results. 

 A Philadelphia firm, dealing in canned goods and dried fruits, writes : 



In canned goods, dried peas and dried Lima beans are soaked and represented as 

 fresh by unprincipled canners and dealers. In fruits there is an excess of water used 

 to make weight and fill up the cans. 



The cost of soaked peas and beans is about 45 per cent, less than that 

 of the fresh articles ; while, in addition to water, we find that " alcohol 

 and molasses" are sometimes used to sprinkle dried fruits and to in- 

 crease weight, but not often, water being the cheaper. 



Prof. S. B. Sharpless, already so extensively quoted, thus speaks in 

 .regard to this subject of canned goods in his work on Food Adultera- 

 tion : 



Sometimes, through careless soldering or the use of terne-plate in making the cans, 

 the articles preserved become contaminated with lead. As this, at the most, only 

 exists in very small quantities, its detection is often a matter of difficulty. The best 

 method of proceeding is to destroy the organic matter either with aqua regia or 

 chlorhydric acid and chlorate. 



Copper is also occasionally found in these goods ; it comes from the copper vessels 

 used in their preparation. This may be detected by the same means that are used in the 

 detection of lead and tin. Copper is to be particularly looked for in canned vegeta- 

 bles and pickles, which were formerly very- generally colored with salts of this metal. 

 Another fraud practiced in these goods is dilution with water or with sirup, the can 

 having comparatively little solid matter in it. There has also been frequent com- 

 plaint of light-weight and small-sized cans. 



Crackers From replies received from cracker manufacturers in the 

 various sections of the country it would seem as if this trade had ab- 

 sorbed a large percentage of the few honest men in the country. All 

 letters received on the subject from manufacturers disclaim any knowl- 

 edge of adulterants, and one in particular, after vigorously disclaiming 

 any knowledge of adulteration, concludes by authorzing me to " state 

 positively that I use no adulterations in my goods. 77 Adulterations in 

 these goods consists mostly, if adulteration it can properly be called, 

 in the use of inferior grades of flour and butter. 



Flour is, as a rule, free from adulterations, though not infrequently 

 mixed with inferior grades, while corn-meal is sometimes added ; this, 

 however, is a deception easily detected. 1 think we may set down the 

 adulteration of flour as rare; nor have I been able to find any known 

 instance where soap-stone was used, as recited in the speech of the Hon. 

 Mr. Green elsewhere quoted. 



Fish are a food product which hardly admit of adulteration, though 

 it is alleged by some fish packers that fish caught by gill-nets are often 

 placed on the market in an unfit condition for food. Doubtless this 

 applies to fish caught in other ways as well. 



The liability to fraud in packing fish is in the packing of stale fish, 

 while a good deal of commercial fraud is practiced by the putting up 

 of inferior and cheap fish, which when packed are sold under the name 

 of a superior and scarcer kind. 



