Egg Powder.

Manawatu Herald, 20 May 1893, Page 3

Egg Powder.

Some consternation has been caused among thrifty housewives in England by some disclosures which came out in the Liverpool Police Court regarding a substance known " egg powder," which it appears is extensively used by economical cooks, especially when eggs are dear, under the impression that they are getting an efficient substitute at a less cost. The powder in question was of a well-known brand which had been many years on the market. Not only was it found on analysis to be absolutely void of any resemblance in. composition to eggs, but to be positively deleterous to health. It was proved to contain no less than 40£ per cent of alum, the other component parts being ground rice, carbonate of soda and colouring matter. Needless to say such a composition .contains not an atom of nutrition except the small quantity comprised in the rice, and its continued use is likely to be very prejudical to the consumer. In a baking powder prosecution not long ago it was deposed that the use of the article had afflicted quite a large proportion of the population with constipation ■ and indigestion owing to the alum with which it was adulterated. There is no question that the use of such misleading names as egg powder for a substance possessing not the remotest affinity to eggs, ought to be strictly prohibited and severely punished. In the present case the purchaser was not only defrauded by not getting a nutritive article of diet, such as its name might reasonably lead him to expect but he ran an excellent chance of being half poisoned as well.—Exchange.