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

Attention should be called, however, to still another form of adulteration due to the fact that the molasses from the sugar cane factories is often so dark-colored as to be even unfit for mixing.

In such cases it is not uncommon to bleach the molasses by adding zinc and acid producing nascent hydrogen and leaving the salts of zinc, either the sulfite or chlorid as the case may be, in the product. Molasses containing salts of any of these heavy metals, namely, zinc, tin, or lead, should be rigidly excluded from consumption.

General Observations.

—If a sirup is to be considered in the light of the definitions already given, as the result of evaporation, after proper clarification of the saccharine juices of sugar-producing plants it is doubtful if the term should be used in connection with the mixed products which have been described. I have used it because these are the commercial designations. Since molasses is also used very extensively in the manufacture of these mixed sirups it might be asked if they could not also be as properly called molasses as sirup. In England the material which is called molasses in this country is usually known as treacle and the very dark molasses coming from the refinery or the sugar factory is known in both countries as “black strap.” If molasses be concentrated to a high degree and pulled while cooling the product is known as taffy in this country or toffy in England,—it is also known as molasses candy.

The general conclusion in regard to this matter is that since the processes of sugar making have been so improved as to extract the greater part of the crystallizible sugar, thus concentrating the residue of an inedible character in the molasses and since, further, the use of various chemicals in the clarifying of sugar juices has become general, all of which are practically concentrated in the molasses, this latter product has practically ceased to be edible.

The laws relating to the distillation of alcohol have been so amended as to permit the production of industrial alcohol, under conditions prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, free of tax. Molasses is an excellent material for this purpose and, in addition to this, is the cheapest material which can be used. The obvious inference is that this material should be used exclusively for the production of industrial alcohol or for some other technical uses and no longer be prepared for human food. The production of straight, pure sirups from maple sap and the sap of the sugar cane and of sorghum and, in certain conditions, from sugar, can be easily secured in quantities sufficient to supply the demand not only for the consumption of pure sirups but also for supplying the materials which when mixed with pure glucose produce the mixed sirups of commerce. Thus inedible molasses would be eliminated from human food and mixed sirups be rendered unobjectionable articles of diet.

CONFECTIONERY.

The term confectionery is applied to a wide range of products which may in general be described as preparations of saccharine substances with various colors and flavors. A common appellation used in connection with confectionery and one which describes perhaps the major part of the product is the term “candy.”

Material Used in the Preparation of Confectionery.

—The saccharine materials which are employed in the preparation of confectionery are sugars of various kinds, namely, maple, cane, and beet sugar together with glucose, dextrose, and invert sugar. Starch, which is not a saccharine substance, is sometimes used as a filler in some forms of confectionery. The colors used are either those of a vegetable character, such as saffron and annatto, or derived from the animal substances, such as cochineal, or more generally, that large class of bodies derived from coal tar and generally known under the name of anilin dyes. The flavors employed are either natural flavors, such as those derived from nuts and fruits, or their preparations, extracts, such as the extract of vanilla, and synthetic preparations, including a very large number of artificial flavoring materials resembling to a greater or less degree the natural flavor of fruits, nuts, or flowers. Chocolate is one of the most common and one of the most highly appreciated flavoring reagents employed, being largely mixed with sugar before using. Not to be included in the permissible materials in the manufacture of confectionery are any powdered mineral substances or mineral substances of any kind (except such as are incident to the manufacture of the product as the natural constituents of the raw material), poisonous or harmful colors or flavors, and fermented, vinous, and distilled liquors and drugs of all kinds.