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Show "PURE" FOOD VS. GOOD FOOD iA new organization is being formed in New York, the work of which is expected to ho far-reaching and most benellclal in Its results. re-sults. It is called, the Good Health Food League ad it intends to do more for the benefit vr cne moiic health than the government "pure food law" does'. The league asserts ' that "pure food Is not always good food." That is, that while- food may bo pure according ac-cording to the government standards, stand-ards, may be of, a nature that will do no harm. It is not always good health food from a standpoint of. nutrition. The" league plans to educate the public to the use of nutritious food -which will also be of such quality that it comes within the provisions of the government act. The campaign of tho league will necessarily be one of education, both of. the manufacturers of foodstuffs food-stuffs and of the consumer. Lectures Lec-tures -will be given by food specialises. special-ises. People will be advised ' about proper diet and will bo taught how-to how-to tell good food from bad nnd why n certain food is good and another bad. The purpose is to creato public pub-lic sentiment which will make manufacturers man-ufacturers of food stop using raw materials that do not measure up to the proper standard of nutrition. "There are more than 2,500 bakers bak-ers In New York City," said Cornelius Cor-nelius S. Loder, one of tho directors of tho league, "and not more than a half dozen have their raw materials mate-rials analyzed by a chemist, Theso bakers are permitted to do business busi-ness if they comply with certain rules of cleanliness in their shops, but tho people who consume the output of these shops havo not tho slightest Idea of what goes Into tho fqod they eat. The government puro food act allows food to be sold I It contains no harmful matter, mat-ter, but It doe3 not take into account ac-count tho amount of nutriment that goes into any certain kind of food. "For instance. If a manufacturer of cocoa wishes to adulterate his product, nothing is easier than to grind up peanuts, shells and all, and mix tho powder with tho cocoa. There is nothing harmful about this, but the cocoa does not contain the .amount of nutriment that it should. I might clto dozens of instances in which similar things can bo or aro being done. "So far as tho bakers, particularly particular-ly ,tho small ones, aro concerned, they buy anything In tho line of raw materials that they can get cheap. In most cases these materials mate-rials aro all right under the pure food law, but not by tb.9 law of nutrition. nu-trition. It is to prevent tho use of ' even the harmless adulterants that the league has been formed and the only way that it can effect ItB purpose pur-pose is by educating the public." Associated in the work of the league is the French-Pancoast Iabpratorift Inca pn of thj lead ing firms of chemists in New York. In tho hands of thi3 flr.m rests the responsibility of deciding whether foodstuffs contain the amount of nutriment that th,cy should. Robert M. French, president of the firm, lias specialized in the analysis of foodstuffs and Is personally very much Interred in the new departure, depart-ure, . "So far as we have gone in this new work," he said, "we have confined con-fined our investigations largely to bakeries. We shall branch out Into other lines of foodstuffs as we pro-, gress, but there Is enough -work to be done in connection with the bakeries bak-eries to keep us busy for, somo time. In the raw materials used by bakers, egg powder, plcfilllng, yeast ,and other, things, we havo found a most startling liet of ingredients that, while perhaps not'harmful. certainly certain-ly lesson the amount of nutriment. "Take flour, for instance. In tho first class grades there is about 60 per cent of gliadin to 40 per cent of gluten. In the lower priced g'rados the amount of gliadin Is decreased and the amount of gluten Increased. This means that, with the cheaper grades of Hour, the bread becomos soggy and rubbers', the yeast has less effect and tho bread 1 t. eo well . aorated. It la. o course, -Impossible to make good bread with poor flour. The flour manufacturers manufactur-ers know this and most of them make chemical tests of their product prod-uct This does not prevent them from selling poorer grades for leas money, however! to bakers who -will buy it. "Yeast is often mixed with starch. This does not affect the quality of the yeast itself, but makes it necessary neces-sary to use a larger amount, thus making the bread of poorer quality. qual-ity. "Malt extract Is much .used 1n breadmaklng. , It Is a yeast food and a substitute for sugar, besides Imparting a certain pleasant flavor to tho bread. Malt extract should contain About 60 per cent of malt sugar and 20 per cent of diastase. If properly made, diastase should be capable of converting its own weight of starch into sugar In less than ten minutes at a temperature of 55 degrees centigrade. Many of the extracts found on the market contain no diastase whatever, usually usual-ly due ,to carelessness in preparation, prepara-tion, but this condition' doe not prevent its sale as ' a' first-class article. . "Vanilla extract .13 another largely large-ly used artlclo which is often adulterated. adul-terated. Weak alcohol, colored, prune Juico and even bay rum are used.- The list is endless and "the education of tho consumer seems to be the only romedy. It is going to bo a long task and a difficult one. but we believe that we can ao far educate tho public that tho food manufacturers will bo.obllgod.to uso only raw materials that they 'know from chemical analysis, to be not only, pur but nutritious,"- . |
