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

The ash existing in these extracts is, of course, usually due to the presence of large quantities of common salt. Sodium chlorid is added to this extract without any definite rule at all and sometimes in very excessive quantities. In some cases thirty percent of the total extract is composed of common salt. In other words, a person taking a solution of this kind would be injecting into his stomach a very concentrated brine. When common salt may be sold at the rate of one dollar per pound, the profit on the transaction is one which ought to make the business exceedingly attractive.

The total phosphoric acid in the ash also shows variations, and if it were not so easy to add artificial phosphoric acid the actual amount present might be taken as a base by which quality could be judged. In the natural extract the total phosphoric acid should be in the proportion to organic phosphoric acid as 10 to 1, which is the natural condition in which it is found in meat extract. In many cases the amount of inorganic phosphorus is so great as to render it certain that a phosphate, probably the phosphate of soda, has been added. In another case the quantity of organic phosphoric acid was very much greater than could have possibly been the case in a natural product, indicating the addition of lecithin or glycerophosphoric acid. The amount of fat in beef extract, when properly prepared, should be very small and should certainly not exceed one percent, since by the proper method of preparation the fat is largely separated. In the pasty material, however, where the meat is reduced to a pulp and retained in the package the amount of fat will be very much greater.

The Nitrogenous Bases.

—The average nitrogen content of the pasty or solid extracts varies from 6 to 9 percent. The nitrogen in the meat juice is subject to much greater fluctuation, depending largely on the content of solids. Although a high nitrogen content is not a guarantee of the character or mode of manufacture of an extract, it is naturally expected and is desirable.

The addition of gelatine to extracts is now largely practiced and has been for some years. By adding gelatine the manufacturer raises or maintains a certain nitrogen content, but supplies the nitrogen in a form lacking in all quickly stimulating qualities, and the natural flavor of the meat extract nitrogen is lowered. The buyer is consequently deprived of the characteristic essentials of a beef extract although the nitrogen content is relatively high. In many cases only a small proportion of the original gelatine exists in the extract as such. The gelatine is converted by a gradual process of hydration into gelatoses and gelatine peptones. While the separation of gelatine from protein matter is a process in anything but a satisfactory condition, it is a far simpler process than the detection and separation of gelatoses and gelatine peptones from albuminoses and peptones. The question has not been thoroughly studied up to date.

The question of adulteration of meat extracts with gelatine is not the only form of adulteration we have to face. The mixing of varying amounts of yeast extract with meat extracts is being practiced at the present time in some countries. As we have not investigated this question, we cannot state whether it is practiced in this country at the present time or not.

Kinds of Preparations.

—Meat preparations of the above types in general may be divided into three classes, liquid extracts, pasty extracts and powdered extracts. In addition to the above, within the last few years beef extract pellets, some of them being enclosed in gelatine capsules, have appeared upon the market. The old-time product of Liebig’s extract belongs to the second class, in which we also find many of our best known brands. The liquid extracts are varied and numerous and their number is rapidly increasing. The amount of meat extractives in some of these liquid products is remarkably small, the quantity of solids in two or three cases being under 10 percent. Alcohol is sometimes met with in these liquid preparations. The meat powders are far less numerous than the extracts of the first two classes. They consist largely, if not entirely, of albuminoses and peptones in addition to some insoluble proteid matter.

Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish between a meat extract containing large amounts of stimulating amido-acids and relatively small percentages of albuminoses, peptones and insoluble proteid matter on the one hand, and, on the other hand, an extract, or, more properly, a meat product, which consists largely of albuminoses, peptones and insoluble matter and relatively small amounts of amido-acids. The food value of this last group of products is undoubtedly greater than that of the former group, but being sold as meat extracts, their value should be based on the amount of extractives they contain and not on their food value.

The value of the amido-bodies, such as the meat bases, as food, is of uncertain character, but we must admit, as in the case of alcohol, they can at least be burned and furnish energy to the body. Like alcohol, the value of meat extractives lies principally in their stimulating qualities. The active principles of tea and coffee are on a similar basis. As these simpler amido-bodies are the final links in the long chain of hydrolytic products of the proteid molecule prior to the complete resolution of that molecule into carbon dioxid, water, etc., it is readily seen that an ounce of meat extractives (the various amido-bodies) represents a far larger amount of beef than an ounce of albuminoses does. The various protein bodies and amido-acids are closely interwoven and it is impossible to produce amido-acids without producing albuminoses and peptones. Consequently, every commercial meat extract must consist partly of albuminoses, peptones, etc. The best of our extracts on the market to-day contain about 50 percent of their total nitrogen in the form of meat base nitrogen. When an extract contains less than 5 percent of its nitrogen in the form of meat base nitrogen the term “extract” seems to be no longer applicable. It is evident that the product represents much less meat than an extract with 50 percent of its nitrogen in the form of meat base nitrogen, provided the total nitrogen in both cases is approximately equal.