Am.  Jour.  Pliami.  1 
January,  1913.  j 
Candy — Cheap  and  Expensive. 
i7 
of  the  ruling  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  in  which  a 
list  of  permitted  colors  was  given,  these  same  confectioners'  asso- 
ciations both  here  and  abroad,  had  been  working  toward  the  same 
end,  namely,  encouraging  the  use  of  a  certain  few  colors  which 
were  known  to  be  harmless  and  the  discouraging  of  the  use  of  a 
large  number  which  were  either  known  positively  to  be  harmful  or 
were  of  doubtful  character.  This  is  not  to  be  taken  as  meaning 
that  all  candy  manufacturers  lived  up  to  these  rules  or  that  no 
adulterated  candy  has  been  sold,  for  the  published  records  of  the 
Federal  cases  and  the  Proceedings  of  the  many  State  Dairy  and 
Food  Commissioners  have  shown  otherwise. 
There  have  been  found  in  candy  in  the  past,  and  prosecutions 
have  been  brought  and  sustained  against  the  cases,  such  products 
as  sulphur  dioxide,  a  bleaching  agent  formerly  used  extensively 
in  glucose  but  now  discontinued  for  that  purpose,  and  also  found 
in  candy  as  the  result  of  the  use  of  impure  gelatin  or  glue;  shellac 
and  similar  waterproof  glazing  materials  sometimes  carrying  with 
v  them  other  harmful  constituents  such  as  arsenic;  alcoholic  liquors, 
and  sometimes  fusel  oil.  in  cordial  drops;  brown  mineral  pigments 
in  imitation  of  chocolate,  and  other  constituents  equally  discreditable, 
but  by  far  the  greater  proportion  of  the  candy  sold  for  some  time 
past  has  been  free  from  positively  harmful  ingredients. 
In  191 1,  working  under  the  direction  of  State  Dairy  and  Food 
Commissioner  James  Foust  of  Pennsylvania,  I  made  an  extensive 
investigation  of  more  than  250  samples  of  candies,  particularly  of 
the  cheap  varieties,  and  of  this  number  only  4  cases  were  recom- 
mended for  prosecution,  3  for  the  use  of  small  quantities  of  talc  and 
1  for  the  use  of  sulphur  dioxide  as  a  bleaching  agent.  The  de- 
tailed result  of  the  examination  of  these  250  samples,  together  with 
comments  thereon,  were  at  that  time  published  as  Bulletin  216  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Department  of  Agriculture  and  observations  were 
made  of  particular  facts  which  I  believe  to  be  worthy  of  repetition 
at  this  time  because  I  believe  they  are  still  applicable  to  trade  con- 
ditions. 
The  criticism  which  can  justly  be  brought  against  many  cheap 
candies  is  not  on  account  of  the  presence  of  constituents  harmful 
in  themselves,  but  partly  on  account  of  the  careless  manner  in 
which  such  candy  is  handled  and  exposed  for  sale,  thus  rendering  it 
liable  to  all  kinds  of  contamination,  partly  on  account  of  the  indi- 
gestible character  of  some  of  the  puffed  up  penny  marshmallow 
specialties,  and  partly  because  by  the  competitive  efforts  of  the  man- 
