Foods and Their Adulteration / Origin, Manufacture, and Composition of Food Products; Description of Common Adulterations, Food Standards, and National Food Laws and Regulations

by Harvey Washington Wiley

Canned Fruits.

The industry devoted to canning fruits is of less importance in the United States than that identified with canned vegetables. Practically, nevertheless, every fruit which has been produced in this country has become a commercial article in the form of canned goods. With the exception of the method of preparation, the process of canning and other treatments are essentially the same as that of vegetables and therefore does not warrant any further description.

In the following data are found a brief description and the composition of the leading varieties of canned fruit:

Canned Cherries.

—Cherries are one of the fruits which are valued for canning purposes. The pits may or may not be removed, according to the desire of the manufacturer and the demand of the consumer. The galvanic action which the cherry juice sets up on the tin plate tends to bleach the natural color of the cherry, and this action can be avoided by coating the interior of the can with a gum or some similar substance which entirely protects the metallic surface from contact with the juice of the fruit. When treated in this way the natural color of the cherry is preserved for a reasonable length of time.

Adulteration of Canned Cherries.

—The only adulteration of canned cherries which is of any consequence is that which relates to artificial coloring. By reason of the tendency to bleach the color, mentioned above, it has been quite customary to add an artificial color to the cherry so that the red color may be preserved. Coal tar dyes, under various names, and an animal dye, cochineal, have been used for this purpose. The practice of artificial coloring is reprehensible and may, in the case of some colors, be harmful to health. By observing the precautions already mentioned, the natural color of the cherry may be preserved without artificial color, and in general this is desirable. The consumer should at all times demand canned cherries which have not been artificially colored.

Maraschino Cherries.

—A very common method of treating cherries is to bleach them in a brine of common salt and sulfurous acid until all the natural color has disappeared. The cherries are then thoroughly washed for the removal of the salt and sulfurous acid and at the same time the juice and soluble portions of the cherry are removed, so that at the end of the washing there is little left but the cellular structure. The cherries are then saturated with sugar or sugar and glucose and colored a deep artificial red by coal tar dye or cochineal. If the natural flavor of cherries has been destroyed by the bleaching an artificial flavor is often added. The product is a cherry of an even deep red tint, more or less sweet, according to the use of greater or less quantities of sugar or glucose, and having a flavor of almond oil. When cherries of this kind are preserved in a solution of alcohol, flavored or unflavored, they are called maraschino cherries. The name is taken from a kind of cherry first used in making the product. They are used to a very large extent with certain beverages such as cocktails, soda water, mint juleps, etc., and also in ice cream and other preparations for the table. Little can be said in praise either of the taste or wholesomeness of these preparations and they are valuable chiefly for their supposed attractive appearance. The offense which is committed against the æsthetic taste of the individual in the preparation of such a product probably offsets any good effect which comes from attractiveness or ornamentation. The product cannot be regarded in any sense as resembling even in color the natural fruit, since practically the whole of the natural fruit, except its cellular structure, has been withdrawn and artificial substances substituted in place thereof.

Canned Peaches.

—A great industry in this country is the canning of peaches. Some of the finest and most perfect varieties are used for this purpose. Peaches may be canned whole or by slicing in half or quarters and removing the pit. The principles of sterilization are not different from those which have already been described. Since the peach is a fruit which decays easily and is thus difficult of transportation, the establishment of canning factories in the vicinity of large peach orchards renders it possible to preserve this delicate fruit in a condition practically as good as that of the natural article, and thus makes it accessible to the people in all parts of the country at all seasons of the year.

Adulteration of Canned Peaches.

—Fortunately in this case there is no record of adulterations which is of any consequence. The perfection of the method of sterilization has rendered it unnecessary to make further use of antiseptics for canned peaches. The use of the artificial sweetening agent, saccharin, is almost unknown and is about the only adulteration which at the present time can be practiced without easy detection. It may be confidently stated that the consumer can rely, with a fair degree of assurance, upon the purity of the product which is taken from the can. The only real danger is in the action of the fruit juice upon the imperfect tin plate, and this is a danger which probably will soon pass away, since there is a tendency manifested now to so protect the tin by a varnish of some kind as to render it impossible for any electric action to take place which impairs the color or flavor of the fruit and also to exclude the poisonous salts of tin and lead from the contents of the can.

Adulteration of Canned Fruit.

—Artificial coloring: The principal adulteration of canned fruit is that due to artificial coloring. There is, perhaps, no other form of adulteration which has so little excuse. It only needs a cursory observation of the fruits of Nature to show that even in the same varieties they differ to a vast degree in natural tint. Bright colors are especially prized in fruits. For instance, the yellow of the peach, the red of the cherry, the purple of the plum, etc. The object of artificial coloring is to make all kinds and varieties of these fruits imitate those of naturally rich color. Its sole purpose is deception, since it can add nothing whatever to the nutritive value. The claim that it adds to the dietetic value of the fruit, as in other cases of the same kind of argument, is plainly fallacious. The very moment the consumer realizes he is eating an artificially tinted fruit, if his temperament be as artistic as should always be the case, he becomes sensitive to the effort made to deceive him. Such artificially colored foods, thus, instead of tasting better than they otherwise would, have a worse taste due to the feeling of antipathy excited by their presence. Hence there can be no excuse, under any circumstances, for the addition of artificial colors to food products of this kind, or in fact, of any kind except those which are purely synthetic and have no relation in composition or in quality to a natural product. With the exception of cherries and berries, the addition of artificial color to canned fruits is not common.

Another form of adulteration, which fortunately is seldom practiced in fruit, is one which has already been described in sufficient detail, that is, the addition of saccharin, a substance which has even less place in fruits than in vegetables. The addition of a non-sugar, such as saccharin, with an intensely sweet taste for the purpose of inducing the consumer to believe that the article is a natural sweet product, is an adulteration of the most reprehensible type, to say nothing of the evil effects of the adulterant employed upon health. The addition of spices and other condimental substances to fruit products cannot be regarded as an adulteration, because they reveal their own presence and are not added for the purpose of imitation or deception. As has been mentioned above, the manufacturer would save all criticism in such cases by a plain statement upon the label of the nature of the substance added.

Canned fruits properly preserved retain their natural aroma and flavor better than any other form of canned food and deserve the high estimation in which they are held by the consumer. The time is now rapidly approaching when all such goods will be free of any imitation or adulteration, and this will add greatly to their value in the markets of the country. The consumer will then only need to have the date of preservation marked on the can to be fully protected.