Adulteration
a term applied to the use of foreign or cheaper ingredients in the manufacture of articles of commerce. The term has acquired a wider significance in recent years in connection with the manufacture and sale of foods. According to state and national food laws, an article is adulterated:
1. If any substance has been mixed with it so as to lower its quality.
2. If any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for this article.
3. If any valuable constituent has been wholly or partially abstracted.
4. If the article be mixed, colored, powdered, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed.
5. If it contain any added poisonous or harmful ingredient.
One of the most common forms of adulteration is the addition of water to milk. To prevent souring in warm weather, certain antiseptics, as boric acid and formaldehyde, are added. Another fraud, which is also a form of adulteration under food law definitions, is the skimming of milk. Yellow coal-tar colors and gelatin have also been added to milk and cream to give the appearance of richness. Butter is adulterated chiefly by the addition of artificial coloring matter, such as annato and coal-tar dye. Oleomargarine, a product made chiefly from tallow, lard, and cottonseed oil, is sold as dairy butter. The same is true also of so-called renovated butter, a product made by melting and treating inferior or rancid butter in such a manner that, for a time at least, it appears fresh and sweet. Vinegar has been traditionally subject to adulteration. The sale of factitious cider vinegar, made entirely from white wine vinegar colored with burnt sugar, has been extensively carried on. Compounded vinegars are made by mixing cider vinegar in various proportions with white wine or distilled vinegar, and supplying certain deficiencies by the addition of molasses, glucose, or boiled cider. Enormous quantities of fraudulent maple syrup and sugar have been manufactured. These products have been derived only in part from maple sap, or, as has often been the case, they have been made entirely from raw or refined cane sugar. The requisite maple flavor has been imparted by mixing the product with an extract made from hickory bark. The use of so-called corn syrup or glucose as an adulterant of maple syrup has been practiced extensively. It has been stated that in years past Chicago has "produced" annually a quantity of maple sugar and syrup equaling the combined products of the states of New York, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. Spices are adulterated with inert materials, such as sawdust, nut shells, fruit stones, and waste products from wheat, corn, rice, and other grains. The essential oil is sometimes partly extracted from certain spices, as clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and in its place is substituted cotton-seed oil. In addition to being deprived of a large part of its oil, mustard has been mixed with flour, ground flax, and other seeds. Ground coffee is adulterated with chicory root, dandelion root, roasted beans, and cereals. Cotton-seed oil, tallow, and petroleum products are used for mixing with higher priced fats and oils, as lard and olive oil; glucose syrup is the common adulterant of molasses and honey; coal-tar dyes serve as a mask for other adulterants; wood alcohol, acetanilid, and various harmful coal-tar products are found in adulterated drugs.
The list of products other than foods and drugs which are liable to adulteration is also a long one. Whiting, barytes, and China clay are used as substitutes for white lead and zinc white; so-called linen often contains cotton, hemp, and tow; much that appears like silk is so-called artificial silk or only mercerized cotton; split leather is sold for calf skin, and lamb and other inferior leather for kid; wool felt is substituted for fur; imitation fur for the genuine, and so on. Laws against substituting inferior alloys for standard alloys of gold and silver have been enacted in some states. The enactment of laws to prevent adulteration of fertilizers has extended to all states using fertilizers in considerable quantities. The Maine experiment station inspects field and garden seeds with reference both to vitality and purity, and the stations in several states exercise a control over the insecticides and fungicides on the market. Some states, as Minnesota and North Dakota, have laws designed to prevent fraud in linseed oil and paints.
Most of the food laws first enacted affected only dairy products; later these laws were amended, or new laws were enacted, so as to include all articles of food and drink. The enforcement of food laws in many states devolves on a food commission, but in a number of states it is in the hands of the experiment station or the board of health. The National Food and Drugs Act was passed and became a law in June, 1906. This law renders more effective the state laws by checking the interstate shipment of fraudulent products.
JULIUS HORTVET.