234 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
It is quite necessary that the raw cereals be cooked, for when 
uncooked the starch is not readily digested in the intestine. 
Much of it appears to resist the action of the digestive juices. — 
The object of the cooking, therefore, is not that the starch may 
be partially predigested, but that it may be rendered capable of 
being digested at all. Not only that, but cooking also improves 
the flavor of the cereals, which is also an advantage, because 
agreeable flavors apparently aid in stimulating the flow of diges- 
tive juices, and thus aid in digestion. 
Very little accurate inquiry has been made regarding the 
length of time actually required for the proper cooking of differ- 
ent cereals. The preparations that are entirely uncooked, of 
course, require longest cooking, and in boiling they should be 
cooked at least an hour. It is sometimes claimed that the 
preparations cooked entirely at home are preferable to those 
partially cooked when purchased; but it is difficult to see why 
the latter, if further cooked sufficiently before eating, should 
not be as digestible as the former. The difficulty generally lies 
in the fact that they are sometimes merely warmed in water. 
They should.always be cooked at least as long as stated in the 
accompanying directions, and for many of them still longer 
cooking is better. 
ADULTERATION OF PREPARED CEREAL PRODUCTS. 
Several of the experiment stations, especially in States having 
‘“nure food’’ laws, have studied the cereal preparations on the 
market in order to learn whether or not they are adulterated. 
In general, the materials appear to be prepared from sound, 
clean grain, and quite free from adulteration, at. least so far as 
injurious substances are concerned. In some of the preparations 
there have been found ingredients which the manufacturers 
might not willingly admit to have been added, but these were 
harmless in character. The worst fraud practised in this class 
of food materials, for it amounts to positive fraud, is in the 
claims for quite impossible qualities and nutritive values made 
in many of the advertisements. They are deliberately planned 
to deceive, and to prey upon ignorance and credulity. A con- 
sideration of this feature, however, is hardly in place in a dis- 
cussion of adulteration. 

