OCR Text |
Show WW ' How to Buy Pure Food In Farm and Fireside are the following rules for buying food products intelligently with some simple tests by which the house j wife can tell when she has been . made the victim of fraud. "There are three kinds of adulteration." ad-ulteration." we read. "First the mixture of the food with cheaper but not injurious articles; , second, the use of substances that injure food qualities, to improve the color and appearance; third, the removal of valuable or necessary neces-sary ingredients. "The purity of baking powder, kctclmp, vinegar, flour, and canned can-ned goods is difficult for anyone but a trained chemist to determine. deter-mine. The safest way to buy such articles is to get standard brands. "While spices are generally adulterated with starchy substances, sub-stances, and the starch can be detected bjr adding a drop or two of tincture of iodine to a water solution of them, it is best to buy standard brands. The starch test can be used with cloves, mustard and cayenne. "To detect coloring matter in tea put a teaspoonful of tea in a sieve, shake over a piece of white nnglazed paper, crushing a little if tightly rolled. Then crush the sifted dust on the paper with a spatula or a caseknife, drawing it along on the paper. "If colored, streaks of various colors will be mingled with the uniform color of the tea dust. rCoffee is adulterated by adding add-ing chicory, various cereals, peas, and beans. In coarsely ground samples the coffee will have a dull surface, while chicory is darker and gummy-looking,' and the beans and peas have a polished surface. A magnifying glass will make these difference plainer. For further test put a level tea-spoonful tea-spoonful in a small bottle of water, shake, let stand a moment; most of the coffee particles, being oily, will float; unless vcrv fine, the substitutes will sink to the bottom." |