Food : a brief account of its sources, constituents and uses / A. H. Church.

  • Church, A. H. (Arthur Herbert), 1834-1915.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Food : a brief account of its sources, constituents and uses / A. H. Church. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    94/280 (page 80)
    purposes, and there is no reason to think it can be productive of the least harm. The case of boiled rice and potatoes is less serious. These materials are, of course, perfectly wholesome in. themselves, indeed the latter material is often advantageously employed in making bread at home, on the small scale; but when these substances are used in order that ioo loaves may be got from a quantity of flour which should yield no more than 95, and when we know that this increase is caused by the larger quantity of water in the bread prepared with the addition of potatoes or rice, then these additions are justly described as adulterations. From what we have just said, it must not be assumed that the adulterants found in bread are the additions, in all cases, of the baker. Millers are known to employ several substances for the purpose of whitening, or otherwise improving the flour, or for fraudulently increasing its weight. Rice meal, bean meal, corn- flour, or Rivett wheat flour, and the flour of Dari (a sort of millet), have been frequently detected in the products of the flour mill. But these materials, though cheaper than wheaten flour, cannot be said to be such serious adulterations as those of a mineral character. Chalk, dolomitic limestone, powdered gypsum, alum, china clay, and even heavy spar or barytes have been employed for this purpose. All of these mineral matters are useless, having no value as food ; some are even injurious. Fortunately they can all be detected by chemical tests, while the adulterants named before (rice, etc.) require very skilful examination in a good microscope. The mere fact that a sample of wheaten flour left, on being burnt, more than its proper proportion of ash would point to adulteration with some of the earthy matters which have just been named. In times of scarcity, all sorts of vegetable matters have been mixed with wheaten flour and meal in order to eke out a limited supply of these nutritious matters. During the siege of Paris a coarse bread was made containing but little wheat, the main ingredients being potatoes and beans, with oats, rice, and