ADULTERATION OF BREAD.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4436, 13 November 1871, Page 3

ADULTERATION OF BRE AD.

Thk London Daily Telegraph baa recently employed a special commissioner to inquire into frauds practised by tradesmen who are guilty of adulteiating articles of daily use aa human food. The disclosures made witli regard to bread are specially important, and will be read with the greater interest hero because it is to be feared that some Auckland bakers are not wholly free from the charge of adulterating bad ilour with alum in order to improve its appearance. The injurious effect of alum frequently taken may not be fully known to the bakers themselves, but it is only necessary for them to place alum in then* mouths or watch its effect upon sheepskins to judge of its influence upon the fine membranes of the body. Alum taken in only model ately large quantities has been known to cause death, and bakers who employ it in their bread are actually using a poison and render themselves liable to heavy penalties under existing laws. In the course of his investigation the Telegraplt'f, [ Commissioner met with a journeyman bakor who gave the following testimuny upon the subject : — " I have been a journeyman baker over 50 jears, and I dare aay that in regular service as odd man I have worked m 50 shops in London at the very least, and I never knew anything but the regular alum to be used in the way of what you call adul'eration. Never, except at 's, in the Kentish Town Road. There was something used there, but I don t know the name of it. It was kept locked up, and when wo ■wanted to make a boiling of it we had to go to the master aud ho gave it to us — abost a pint of it. It was like fine salt, only shiuier. We used to stir it in a copper of water till the copper-stick would stand upright in it; then it was ready for use. It's all nonsense. What interest has the baker got in poisoning people ? All that he wants to do is to eke out his flour, and make as much of it as ho can, or, if his flour is rather dicky, to make it pass. Nothing's better thau alum ; it ceitainly do work wonders with flour that isn't up to the ' mai k. Sometimes too much is used, I dare faay ; but that isn't always the baker's fault. What do I mean by that ? Why, that the baker is misled. The iiour is very often doctored befoie he gets it. I won't say it of towu millers, but I'll make bold to say of country millers that it is quite <v common piactico with them to alum the Hour. Country milleis, who have a lot of commission shop**, go ahead with the alum worse than any of them. It's pretty much between some of the milleis and some of the bakeis as it is between the big brewers and the pnblic-houacs. Theie are hundreds of shops in London with the bakci'a uaine over the dc.or, but it's no moie his business than it's yours. That's where the mischief is. A baker gets into diiliculties and can't piy up ; aud, especially if it is in a good cutting neighbourhood, in comes the miller, and lakes the business over his head, allowing, say, sa. a sack for making, and the bit of extia piotit he may be able to make on rolls, and them sort of small things. The baker deesn't have a chance. They'ic wide awake, them country millers. They know to a guun almost how much alum their flour will stand, and if the baker venture on a little moie, s<? as to make an exti a few shillings on his own hoak, as the the saying is, why, you see, he very often makes a mess of it. Alum makes the flour stiong — strong to bear water, as well as whitening it. It ' binds ;' and. when you use a lot of rice and 'taters, you wants a binder for 'em. " "How much rice is used, say, to aback of flour Y" "It depends; «n the neighbouihood- if it's a 'cutting' or a ' fair puce.' You might take a pound of rice as commonly used to a sack of flour. No, it don't seem much ; but think of the lot of water a pound of boiled rice sucks up if it's properly m naged. Eight quarts it will suck up ; and theie's 101b. weight to begin with. There isn't any seciet about bread-rnaking — it's all a question of getting the article to stand as much water as possible. That's where the baker's pvohfc is. He is a gootl baker who can get i)S 41b. loaves out of a sack o£ tiour with the other grievances" — he meant " ingredients.," but he called them gi lev Alices most distinctly. "I'm speaking I ot countiy flour. A sack of town (lmir will make 102 41b. loaves. Country flour is always 2s. and 3a. a sack cheaper than towu. In knocking up a cheap loaf the management of the oven has a lut to do with it. <Jood bicad will bake in a brisk oveu in an hour and a-quaitei, but the other sorts want mn sing. It your lire is too fierce, it would draw all the piotit out of X—water,K — water, I mean, that you've boon tiyiug to put into it. It must be baked slowly, for two hours, in a black oven, and then you are able to dnuv it ' with the giavy in it.' aa wo say. We will mako a good allowance with this kind for steaming oft-«in ounce to the pound. It will \o-m quite that, and peiliays a httlo moie. It w oukln't do in pool neiLilibouiliooila t> make bitad lull ay eight. JL'hey buy their biead out of the scale, and they would think that they wcie ehoatid if tiny didn't get the bit over. People that deal at ' cutting shops' will haw a lall lo.vt and a white loat, aud it n unpo-siiilue to accommodate them at tlic pi ice unlibS they vill stand to the alum aud the rcht of the gnuvauciis The quantity of salt isn't the same. Generally it's thiec pounds in six bushels ; but new (loui takes more. i can speak exactly as to alum. JBaLeis have got their own ideas, and a 3et of customers that get used to the flavour of their bread. I should us.o about 10oz. to the sack if I had queer Hour jjiven me lo make a showy loaf of ; but I have used as ii.uch as a pound, and ii<iLudy his giuinbled. i->o I think it would be better if people made their own bread ? Ido if they could depcud on the ilour they bought. It they bought it at a commission shop that was served by one of them countiy niilleis I was speaking of, they would be no more fice from alum than it tho baker made them bread. There's an awful lot of iiddling in the flour that the bakers sell. When they scale it into the hags theie's an ounce weight always pub in to pay for the paper baga, aud tUeu <lota of 'cm will ■woikin a lot of rice flour and bean meal." We may remark that the Commissioner refened to procured samples of bread from half a do/sen diffcient districts in London, and submitted thcMn to Mr. John Broad and Professor Atttiekl for chemical analysis. They found that in live of the six samples of biead procured alum was used ..s an adulterant to the extent of one ounce to a bushel of flour, equivalent to 28 giams of alum to a 41b. loaf, aud in the sixth sample just double the above quantity of alum had been used in the manufactuie of bread. As a la«v exists in New Zealand to punish trade fiauds of this kind, some measures should be taken to enforce it, and thus protect the public from the injurious compounds which they are sometimes made to consume in place of the • a oo<l wholesome food which they expect and ate entitled to receive.

Fanny Fern having said that " men of the present clay were fast," Prentice replied that " they have to be, to catch the women." " Why do you oppose giving the ballot to women ?'" asked a lady the other evening of a confirmed, bachelor. " Excuse me, madam," replied he, " but I have not sufficient confidence iv their capacity to conduct Government &ff«ura." " What evidence of their mental inferiority to mankind can you advance?" queried the lady. "A simple fact is enough to satisfy my mind, and that is the frightful way in which they do up their back hair." We have examined some of F. FT. Lewisson's Auckland-made 18-carab gold alberts, and for finish they cannot be surpassed. — [A».] We are requested by F. H. Lewiason to state that no gold chains or alberta are of his make without they are stamped F. H.L., 18 - carat. Having engaged a gold-chain makor from London, he is prepared to make any English pattern chain to order.— [Adv.] a CROWN OP BEAUTY I Abundance of long, silken hair is the greatest po tible enhancement of | fenialo beauty. Iho heavj plaits and folds are indeed "a crown" of which any woman may bo proud, iwd they are within the reaoh of all. Barry's Trkophcrous will restore the thinimt and h>tr-ikt»t hu.iT to full vigorous beauty; for 70 yetrs it hu been i» constant u«e, and we know of no cms where it' fulled. Try it. Try it.— Wholeiale Agents for New Zealand: Messrs. Eemptborne, Prosier, and Co., Dunedin and Auckland— (Adt.)