FOOD 253 



When linseed is pressed in a mill the oil, or a good deal 

 of it, is squeezed out, and the resulting substance is known 

 as linseed cake. 



Oil Cakes. 



The chief of these is linseed the manufacture of which 

 has just been mentioned, it contains a variable amount of 

 oil depending upon the pressure which has been applied, 

 but with the most perfect pressure the amount left behind 

 varies from 10 per cent, to 15 per cent. 



The pressure has in no way interfered with the proteid 

 or carbo-hydrate substances, these are left behind the result- 

 ing mass being a highly concentrated food. This remark 

 applies to all seeds from which other cakes are made, viz. 

 cotton, rape, etc. 



Linseed cake owing to the demand is frequently adul- 

 terated, pure linseed is what is expected in the best cakes, 

 but unscrupulous manufacturers introduce other oil seeds 

 obtainable at a very much cheaper rate, and sell the cake 

 at linseed prices. 



So strong is the temptation to adulterate linseed that on 

 the authority of Letheby, it is stated that the siftings of 

 linseed are not thrown away but are used for adulterating 

 other samples, even to the extent of being sent out to sea 

 in barges to meet vessels coming in, mixed at sea, and sold 

 on arrival as genuine linseed ' as imported.' 



Foreign made cakes are frequently impure and unsound ; 

 the only exceptions are the American cakes which are pure 

 but hard and present a low percentage of oil, and some of 

 the cakes made in the north of Germany. 



There are certain seeds like castor, croton, and mustard, 

 capable of yielding oil on compression, but the residue is 

 unfit for food being poisonous, though mustard seed is 

 frequently used as an adulterant of some cakes. 



Rape yields a cake which frequently contains mustard, 

 not necessarily as an adulteration, but because under care- 

 less agriculture the two are grown together. Its presence 

 renders rape cake very often unsafe, and never reliable 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



