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

Age of Flour.

—The freshly ground flour is most highly esteemed by many consumers on account of palatability and freedom from all danger of mold and ferments. Older flours are likely to lose flavor, become moldy and infested with weavil and other insect pests. The last-named evils are avoided by the use of wheat containing no fungus, none of the eggs of the weavil, nor of other insects, and enclosing the freshly ground flour in packages not accessible to infection. Even then it is advisable to consume the flour as soon as convenient after the milling process. Many manufacturers and experts contend that flour is improved by keeping for a certain length of time, and this contention is based on the assumption that the flour assumes a lighter color and improves in flavor on keeping. There is of course a certain limit to improvements of this kind.

Substitutes for Flour.

—Wholesome ingredients are used in part instead of flour in bread making, and when that fact is clearly made known the admixture of these substances with flour is not considered an adulteration. Bread which is made of an admixture of Indian corn meal with flour or rye flour with flour or other cereal products is well liked by many people. Potatoes are also used very often in bread making. Acorns, buckwheat, and other farinacious and oily substances are also employed. The admixture of inert substances with flour merely to increase the bulk and weight of the loaf, even if notified, cannot be regarded as other than an adulteration.

In times of famine such admixtures are sometimes made in order to increase the size and weight of the loaf. Such substances are known in times of famine as “hunger bread.” Finely ground straw, bark, the hulls of nuts, etc., are often used for this purpose. These bodies practically have no nutritive value and serve no useful purpose except to deceive the eater respecting the quantity of bread he consumes.

BREAD.

The term “Bread” when used alone is understood in this country to apply to bread made from wheat flour or some form of wheat. If made from other cereals a prefix is used to distinguish this fact, as Indian corn bread, rye bread, etc. The term bread includes also the materials which are used necessarily therewith in the ordinary process of baking. Thus, the term bread would apply to a loaf which contains not only the wheat flour as the base and chief part of its mass but also the yeast or other leavening agent employed, together with salt, lard, or butter used in its preparation. The presence of these bodies, used in the sense above described, is not regarded as an adulteration. The term “bread,” however, is not to be used to include those other forms of nutriment made from wheat flour in which condimental substances, especially sugar, are used to such an extent as to give the dominant taste of the condiment or condiments employed. Thus, the ordinary cake of all descriptions, tarts, puddings, and other edible substances made largely from wheat flour, but to which the condiment or condiments impart a distinct taste, are not included under the term bread.

In the generic sense the term bread may be used in the largest signification to signify food in general.

Varieties of Bread.

—In general all forms of bread may be divided into two great classes, leavened and unleavened. By far, the greater quantity of bread consumed belongs to the former class. Unleavened bread is used chiefly for certain religious festivals, in the form of biscuits or in certain varieties of Indian corn bread such as hoe cake, johnnie cake, etc. Of the leavened bread there are two distinct classes, namely, bread which is baked and eaten cold and bread which is consumed hot from the oven. Bread intended to be consumed cold is generally eaten within twenty-four or forty-eight hours from the time of making though some varieties may be kept for an indefinite period. The use of hot bread is not commended by hygienists though it is difficult to see why, when properly made, the consumption of a good hot roll can be regarded as injurious. The apparent injury which may result therefrom is probably due to the larger quantity eaten on account of greater palatability than is the case with cold bread. That variety of bread which is baked so as to present a maximum of crust and made of flour which gives a tough consistency to the loaf is most highly regarded both for palatability and nutritive purposes. This form of bread is improperly called French or Vienna rolls in this country.