COWS : In market milk such wide variations are not so liable to occur as the milk from one animal tends to average that from another. The average composition of genuine milk supplied by one of the largest dairy companies in London, as established by the analysis of 120,000 separate samples recorded by Dr. P. Vieth, is fat
other milk solids ("solids not fat" or "non-fatty solids") 8.8%, total dissolved matters (total solids) 12.9%, the variations being from 3.6% to 4.6% in the fat and 8.6% to 9.1% in the solids not fat. It is clear that the 4.6% of fat could be reduced, by skimming, to 3.0%, and the 9.1% of solids not fat to 8.5% by addition of water, without bringing the composition of the milk thus adulterated outside that of genuine milk.
is milk that has been evaporated under re duced pressure with or without the addition of sugar. Generally one part of condensed milk corresponds to three parts of the original milk. There is no rase on record of adulteration of unsweetened condensed milk, but sweetened milk has in the past been fre quently prepared either from machine-skimmed or partly skimmed milk and sold as whole-milk. As sweetened condensed milk is largely used by the poorer part of the population for the feeding of infants, and as the fat of milk is its most valuable constituent, this class of fraud was particularly mischievous. The average composition of sweetened condensed milk may be taken, with slight variations, to be : water 24.6%, fat 11.4%, casein and albumen io%, milk-sugar 11.7%, cane-sugar 40.3%, mineral mat ters 2.0%.
Cream.—There are, in England, no regulations or official stand ards relating to this article, the value of which depends upon its contents in fat. Additions of starch paste, or any thickening sub stance (other than cane or beet sugar), with the object of giving an appearance of richness to a naturally poor and dilute article, are forbidden in England. Within recent times all cream sold by others than milkmen, and much of that even, contained boric acid. The limit of boric preservative that might be permitted, but which was nearly always exceeded, was one-quarter of i %. Its use is now prohibited altogether.
Of all articles of food butter is the most extensively adulterated by the addition of water either directly or by the way of milk or salt. Another form of adulteration consists in the sub stitution of other fatty matters for the whole or part of the really valuable portion of the butter-fat. Margarine, coconut oil and other fats are of this class.
is frequently adulterated. Excessive amounts of water or of milk—margarines with over 30% of water are met with—sugar, glucose, starch, gelatinous matter, solid paraffin, in fact anything that is cheaper than fat has been used.
varies very widely in composition, so-called cream cheese containing not less than 6o% of fat Stilton upwards of 40% Cheddar about 30% Dutch, Parmesan and some Swiss and Danish less than 20%. The amount of water varies with the kind and age of the cheese and may be as low as 20% and as high as 6o%. When, however, cheese is made from skimmed milk and the fat is replaced by margarine, as is the case in so-called "filled" or margarine cheeses, the sale of these amounts to an adulteration, unless the presence of the foreign substance is declared.
Between the years 188o and 1890 a gigantic fraudulent trade in adulterated lard was carried on from the United States. A great proportion of the American lard imported into England was found to consist of a mixture of more or less real lard with cotton seed oil and beef-stearine. Maize oil is now used as a lard adulter ant, its detection being far more difficult than that of cotton-seed oil.
The most common adulterant of the more valuable oils, like olive oil, is cotton-seed oil. The oils expressed from the sesame seed or the earth-nut (arachis oil) are also frequently admixed with olive oil. Almond oil is adulterated with the closely allied oils from the peach-kernel or the pine-seed. Deodorized paraffin hydrocarbons also enter as adulterants into edible oils.
as sold in England are almost invariably gen uine. The old forms of adulteration, such as the use of alum for the production of a white but indigestible loaf from bad flour, have disappeared. The only admixture which has been met with during recent years is maize-meal in American produce. This is of inferior food value to wheat-meal. In 1927 a, committee of the British Ministry of Health issued a report on the treatment of flour with chemical substances. These bleaching agents and so called "improvers" are chiefly nitrogen peroxide, benzoyl peroxide, chlorine and nitrogen trichloride, acid calcium phosphate, acid ammonium phosphate and persulphates. It was considered that chlorine, nitrogen trioxide and benzoyl peroxide were more open to objection than the others, and that the use of physical rather than chemical methods of improving flour merited extension.
in its various forms is not subject to adulteration by the addition of inferior substitutes. There have, however, been numer ous prosecutions for a fraud of another class, namely, the substi tution of dyed beetroot sugar for Demerara sugar.
In the preparation of marmalade and jams a part of the sugar, from i o% to 15%, is often now re placed by starch glucose. Artificial colouring matters and chemical preservatives are almost constant ingredients of jams. To such fruits which, when boiled with sugar, do not readily yield a jelly (strawberries, raspberries) an addition of apple juice is frequently made in the manufacture of jam, without much objection the pulp of the apple, however, is sometimes bodily added as an adulterant. The only preservatives now allowed in England are sulphur dioxide and benzoic acid in quantities prescribed in the Statutory Rules and Orders, 1925, No. 775.
In consequence of the proviso contained in the Food Act of 1875 that tea was to be examined by the customs on im portation, such tea as was found to be admixed with other sub stance or exhausted tea being refused entry into England, the adulteration of tea has been virtually suppressed. The practice, very common a generation ago, of artificially colouring tea green with a mixture of Prussian blue and turmeric has quite vanished with the decline of the consumption of green tea.
A few cases of artificially manufactured coffee berries, made from flour and chicory, have been observed, but it would not be fair to speak of a practice of adulteration regarding coffee berries. Not infrequently coffee is roasted with the addition of some fatty matter or paraffin or sugar, to give to the roasted coffee a glossy appearance. These additions as a rule are small in amount. Ground coffee is often sold adulterated with chicory, sugar or caramel.
are liable to a number of fraudulent additions. In the cheaper qualities of cocoa-powder, sugar and starch—the latter in the form of sago flour or arrowroot—are ad mixed in very large proportions, and, in order to give to such mix tures something like the appearance of genuine cocoa, red oxide of iron is added. This almost invariably is more or less arsenical. Cocoa-shell, a perfectly valueless material, is mixed in a very finely ground state with cocoa of the commoner kind.
Much wine is fortified with alcohol made from other sources than the grape, and the addition of sugar, precipitated chalk, salts of zinc, to correct the product of poor vintages is corn mon in certain instances.
cannot be said to be adulterated, although materials often very different from those which the general public believe to be the proper raw materials for the manufacture of beer, namely, water, malt and hops, are largely used. That is to say, beer is legally anything that is sold as beer provided that it has 2% of proof spirit. There is not any restriction upon the materials that are employed provided that they are not positively poisonous. For inland revenue purposes, however, a prohibition has been made against the admixture of anything to beer after it has been manufactured, and excise prosecutions of publicans for watering beer are not infrequent.
Of these again it is hardly proper to speak as liable to adulteration. So-called soda-water is very often devoid of soda and is only carbonated water. Potash and especially lithia waters very frequently contain only mere traces of the substances from which they derive their names. The sweet ness of ginger-beer and often of lemonade is no longer due to sugar but to saccharine (the toluol derivative), which is possessed of sweetness but not of nourishment and since, as an antiseptic, it may affect the digestion, its use in these beverages is to be deprecated.
ought to be the product obtained by the successive alcoholic and acetous fermentation of a sugary liquor. When this is obtained from malt or from malt admixed with other grain the vinegar is called a malt vinegar. Often, however, acid liquors pass under that name which have been made by the action of a mineral acid upon any starchy material such as maize or tapioca, with or without the addition of beet sugar. Dilute acetic acid, obtained from wood, is very frequently used as an adulterant of vinegar.
When properly purified such acid is unobjectionable physiologi cally, but it is improper to sell it as vinegar. Adulteration of vine gar by sulphuric or other acids, formerly a common practice, is now exceedingly rare.
Spirits.—Formany years the only form of adulteration known was dilution with water. It was, however, well known that many so-called brandies were not the product of the grape, but that spirits of other origin were mixed with grape brandy. These were deficient in alcohol derivatives ("esters") to which the flavour of real brandy is due. For the present a brandy is not considered genuine unless it contains in Ioo,000 parts (calculated free from water) at least 6o parts of "esters." As a consequence a trade has sprung up in artificially produced esters, sold for the purpose of adding them to any spirit to convert it into a liquor passing as "brandy." Formerly a common form of adulteration of whisky was the addition to it of spirit made on the Continent mainly from potatoes.
Drugs.—Veryfew of the great number of drugs included in the pharmacopoeias are liable to serious adulteration, and cases on record during recent years where real fraudulent adulteration was involved, are rare. Certain perishable drugs, such as sweet spirits of nitre, or others liable to contain from their mode of manufac ture metallic impurities, form the subjects of frequent prosecu tions, but the element of intentional fraud which characterizes many forms of food adulteration is happily generally absent in the case of drugs.
Ingeneral it may be said that so far as England and Wales are concerned the effect of the application of the food laws has been entirely beneficial. Not only has the percentage proportion of samples found adulterated largely de clined, but the gross forms of adulteration which prevailed in the middle of the 19th century have almost vanished. Plenty of fraud still prevails, but poisoning by reckless .admixture is of exceedingly rare occurrence. Whilst formerly milk was not infre quently adulterated with an equal bulk of water, few fraudulent milkmen now venture to exceed an addition of o% or 15%.
So far as concerns the latest regulations in England, section 4 (I) of the Public Health (Preservatives, etc., in Food) Regula tions 1925, dated August 4, 1925, made by the Minister of Health is as follows: 4.—(I) No person shall manufacture for sale or sell any article of food which contains any added preservative or any of the colouring matters specified in part ii. of the First Schedule to these Regulations : provided that—(i.) any article of food specified in part i. of the said Schedule may contain preservative of the nature and in the proportion therein specified; (ii.) where an article of food specified in part i. of the said Schedule is used in the prepa ration of any other article of food, the latter article may contain any preservative necessarily introduced by the use of the former article, but the total proportion of any one preservative contained in any article of food specified in that part of the Schedule shall not exceed the proportion therein specified. For the First Schedule see adjoining column.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-G. W. Monnier-Williams, "Determination of SulBibliography.-G. W. Monnier-Williams, "Determination of Sul- phur Dioxide in foods" and "Determination of benzoic acid in food stuffs," Ministry of Health reports Nos. 43 and 39 London, 1927 (bib liog.) ; C. R. Fellers, "Public Health aspects of food preservation," Am. J. Pub. Health 5927, xvii., 470; W. G. Savage and others: "Dis cussion on food manipulation in relation to health," Brit. Med. fn. 1925 ii., 56o (bibliog.). (X.)
