Spices.—One hundred and eighty samples, comprising mustard, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cassia, cloves, white, black, and red pepper, mace, and nutmeg. One hundred and twelve were adulterated from 40 to 81.8 per cent. All the adulterations were harmless (wheat and buckwheat bran, hulls of different seeds, middlings of corn-meal, stale ship’s bread, peas, beans, etc.). No poisonous substance was found. (Lattimore.)
Sugar.—One hundred and sixteen samples, principally collected in New York city. Care was taken to secure the samples from different sections of the city and from all classes of stores. Of these, thirty-four were microscopically clean, fifty-four slightly contaminated with dust, twenty-two contained considerable dirt, and six were very dirty. But in no case was there an intentional addition of insoluble mineral matters. Of forty-nine white sugars, all were pure; of sixty-seven brown sugars, four were adulterated with glucose. (A. L. Colby, Ph. B.)
There have been many exaggerated statements put forth regarding the adulteration of sugar. In 1870 Dr. Chandler reported to the New York City Board of Health that sixty samples of sugar bought at small groceries were found pure and unadulterated without exception. In 1872, Elwyn Waller, for the same board, examined one hundred and nine samples of powdered sugar, but found no adulteration.
Powdered sugar is quite generally believed to be adulterated with gypsum or flour. As both of these adulterants are insoluble in water, it is easy for any one to convince himself of the purity of sugar by dissolving it in water.
Teas.—Forty-three samples of green tea, and eighteen of black. Many were cheap and of very inferior quality, some mere tea rubbish, yet no leaf, or fragment of a leaf, which was examined, could be considered anything but tea. No adulterations were found, and even the admixture of exhausted leaves could not be positively asserted. (Lattimore.) Suspected leaves should be wet and spread out, and then compared with leaves known to be genuine. It is said that exhausted leaves of green tea are often colored or “faced” with plumbago, Prussian blue, soapstone, etc., so artfully that only an expert can detect the fraud. Black tea is generally pure.
Vinegar.—Four samples, all poor, but not adulterated, unless with water. (Lattimore.)
Whisky.—Twenty-five samples. Fusel-oil decided in twenty, and traces in the rest. No injurious adulteration found. “It is evident that the addition of water and coloring-matter is practiced more than any other adulteration.” (Engelhardt.)
Wine.—“A good wine should be transparent, and should have a bouquet. When pouring it into a glass, it should sparkle. A sour taste is always a sign of poor wine. Dizziness and headache are not produced by drinking pure wine. Cloudy, discolored, highly colored wines are suspicious.” There are various substances used in the manufacture of wine which should be classed as adulterations, e.g., calcined plaster is added to the grape-juice during fermentation (so-called plastering); in this way is formed an insoluble tartrate of lime, and a soluble sulphate of potash, the latter having a bitter taste and acting as a purgative even in small doses. The French Government forbids the sale of wine containing over 0.2 per cent of sulphate of potash. This process also leads to the formation of acid sulphates and free sulphuric acid in wines. Plastering of wines is practiced in Spain, Portugal, and the south of France.
Wines are often fortified by the addition of brandy, cologne spirit, or French spirit, to arrest fermentation. Ports and sherries are almost invariably so.
Red wines are often colored with logwood, Brazil-wood, fuchsine, cochineal, black hollyhock and red poppy flowers, alkana-root, red beets, cherries, whortleberries, elderberries, pokeberries, etc. It is very difficult to detect these, and fuchsin is the only one that is poisonous. Carpené gives the following very simple method to decide whether a red wine is naturally or artificially colored: Take a piece of good, white burned lime, break it into two pieces, smooth the surfaces by a knife or file, and place a few drops in succession on the same spot of the smooth surface, and observe after a few minutes the color produced. Natural red wines give a yellowish-brown spot; colored with fuchsine, or Brazil-wood, a rose-colored spot; colored with logwood, a dark-violet spot; colored with cochineal, a reddish-violet spot; colored with black hollyhock, a yellowish-brown spot; colored with pokeberries, a yellowish somewhat red spot. (Engelhardt.)