ADULTERATION OF FOOD.- NO. 2. 
235 
brilliant lustre ; furthermore, it always contains pe¬ 
culiar clotted masses, more or' less large, which 
have been formed by the adhesion of a multitude 
of grains during the process of drying. When 
genuine, it is odorless and tasteless, and produces 
a sort of crackling noise, when pressed, or rubbed, 
between the fingers. The suspected sample, if 
adulterated with potato starch, when mixed with 
hot water, will immediately develope the raw-po¬ 
tato odor, but if it be pure and unmixed, it will be 
without smell. 
Tapioca is also sometimes manufactured from" 
potato starch, by drying potato flour on metallic 
plates, heated to about 212°F. The paste imme¬ 
diately forms hard unequal lumps, when stirred; 
after it is pretty well dried, it is sifted; the finer 
portions form factitious sago, whilst the larger ones 
constitute tapioca. When these spurious articles 
are heated with water, the peculiarly disagreeable 
odor of raw potatoes is given off. 
Bread .—The adulteration of bread is often car¬ 
ried to a fearful extent. Not only is the flour from 
which it is made falsified by old and damaged 
grain, and other substances just named in the adul¬ 
teration of flour, but frequently alum, carbonate of 
ammonia, carbonate of magnesia, and common bar 
soap are added to disguise, or improve some bad 
quality in the flour, or to increase the weight. 
Bread is also sometimes adulterated with blue vi¬ 
triol (sulphate of copper), white copperas (sulphate 
of zinc), both of which are highly poisonous, 
carbonate of potash, plaster of Paris, and pipe clay. 
The practice of introducing boiled potatoes into 
bread is very common with some bakers. In this, 
there is nothing unwholesome; in fact, the bread 
is more palatable : but it is a decided fraud; for 
the bread made in this manner, is not so nourishing 
as wheaten bread, and is made far cheaper than if 
flour alone were used. Hence it should not sell 
for the same price. Much of the bread made 
with potatoes is not so nourishing, by at least 20 
per cent, as that of wheaten flour. 
Alum is employed for the purpose of working 
up inferior kinds of flour. If omitted, the bread 
has a slight yellowish-grey hue, as may often be 
seen in what is called “ home-made bread,” in pri¬ 
vate families. Such bread remains longer moist 
than that made with alum, yet it is not so light and 
full of “ eyes,” nor so porous, and it has also a dif¬ 
ferent taste. 
The quantity of alum necessary to produce the 
required whiteness and porosity in bread, depends 
entirely on the genuineness of the flour and the 
quality of the grain from which it is obtained. 
The smallest quantity of alum that can be employed 
in producing a seemingly good bread, from a bad 
flour, is stated to be about six grains to each pound 
of flour; but the quantity generally used is believ¬ 
ed to be much more. 
Markham, in his “ Considerations on the Ingre¬ 
dients Used in the Adulteration of Flour and 
Bread,” states that, in making five bushels of flour 
Into bread, there are added 8 oz. of alum; 4 lbs. of 
salt: and \ a gallon of yeast, mixed with about 3 
gallons of water. 
Although alum, in bread, is not so injurious as 
some of the materials to be hereafter treated of, 
yet its daily use is apt to disorder the proper func¬ 
tions of the stomach, and produce costiveness and 
other inconveniences, more especially with persons 
having weak constitutions. Its use, therefore, is 
much to be condemned, more especially as it is em¬ 
ployed to disguise the bad quality of the flour. 
Carbonate of ammonia (volatile sal ammoniac, 
or smelling salts), is employed by fraudulent bakers, 
in order to produce light and porous bread from un¬ 
wholesome and bad flour, termed “ sour.” Thus, 
a material, which in itself, is perfectly harmless, 
is made use of by the baker, as a mask for fraud. 
This salt, which chiefly becomes converted into a 
gaseous state, during the operation of baking, 
causes the dough to swell up into air bubbles, 
rendering the bread light and porous, as though it 
were made of superior flour. 
Carbonate of magnesia of the shops, when mixed 
with inferior kinds of flour, will apparently pro¬ 
duce bread of a good quality. The loaves made 
with it, rise well in the oven, and after being baked, 
they are light, spungy, and keep well. In cases 
where new flour is of an indifferent quality, from 
20 to 30 grains of this carbonate to a pound, when 
added, will considerably improve the taste and ap¬ 
pearance of the bread. When the flour is of the 
worst quality, 40 grains of magnesia to a pound 
seems necessary to produce the same effect. 
It has been stated, that not the slightest danger 
can be apprehended from the use of so innocent a 
substance as the carbonate of magnesia in the manu¬ 
facture of bread. This, however, is a mistake; 
for it is a well-ascertained fact, that the daily use 
of the common magnesia of the shops, induces the 
formation of the most dangerous and painful cal¬ 
culi. So that, this species of admixture is to be 
most energetically condemned, not only on account 
of the specific action of the substance employed, 
but also because, by its means, an inferior flour 
can be used. 
But the most deadly fraud practiced in the manu¬ 
facture of bread, consists in the introduction of sul¬ 
phate of copper (blue copperas), when the flour 
used is obtained from bad grain. If the bread does 
not rise well, a little blue copperas obviates, the 
inconvenience; it also causes the bread to retain 
much more water. The quantity generally em¬ 
ployed is very small, say, about one ounce of the 
copperas dissolved in a quart of water, a wine glass 
of which is sufficient for 175 lbs . of flour. Kuhlmann, 
in Ures’ Dictionary, deduces from a series of ex¬ 
periments in baking, with various small quantities 
of blue copperas, that this salt exercises an ex¬ 
tremely energetic action upon the fermentation and 
rising of dough, even when not above part 
of the weight of the bread employed, or one grain 
of the copperas for 10 lbs. of bread. The propor¬ 
tion of this salt, which makes the dough rise best, 
is stated to be gwooth of a grain to 3 lbs. of bread. 
If more of the copperas be added, the bread be¬ 
comes moist, less white, and acquires a peculiarly 
disagreeable smell, like that of leaven. 
The sulphate of zinc (white copperas), is also 
sometimes employed in the manufacture of bread 
for the same purpose as the sulphate of copper, the 
effects of which, we have just described, but it does 
not act in so energetic a manner. It is equally poi¬ 
sonous however, and is as much to be dreaded. 
Carbonate and bi-carbonate of potash (pearlash 
