FOOD ADULTERATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 15 January 1932, Page 4

FOOD ADULTERATION.

The citizen of Masterton of today takes it for granted that the milk, bread, flour and all the other food he consumes is fit to eat. lie does not realise the years of patient research and the constant vigilance of an army of food inspectors, which bring about that result. AVere the resident of Masterton to delve into the matter he would find it both interesting and gruesome. In olden times the inspection of food stuffs was crude, but the punishment was severe. In Germany in 1482 a vendor of adulterated wine was' made to drink six quarters of his own wares. lie died as the lesult. In another case, a man and woman who sold adulterated food were buried alive. In 1820 the bakers of England were using o-ypsum, alum and pipe clay in their bread. In 1837 Dr. Hassell purchased 34 samples of coffee, of which three were pure, and the remainder contained such ingiedients as roasted corn potato flour, roasted and powdered carrots, and baked and dried horses and bullocks’ livers. Sugar was apparently crawling alive with insects, and a skin disease peculiar to grocers, and known as “grocer s itch,” was attributed to the handling of the sugar. In 1855 it was found by an English Parliamentary committee that about 50 per cent, of the mustard sold contained a considerable quantity of plaster of Paris, while one manufacturer of chicory in one year used 700 tons of carrots. Used tea leaves were collected in those days from hotels and restauiants, and were rinsed in a solution of o'um, tinted and faced with blackfead, and added to genuine tea. Probably the busiest adulteratoi of all was the publican of that period. Even in some parts of America to-day adulteration is a fine art, and often goods done up m attractive packets and tins are not even fifty per cent, true to label.