Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/278

 should be applied to all flour made from well grained wheat, ground, and unbolted. Most of the flours however, which are sold nowadays as graham flours are produced by a more or less perfect bolting process. From the above it is seen that true graham flour will contain practically the same constituents as the wheat kernel itself and in the same proportion and have the same composition as wheat.

Entire Wheat Flour.—This name would naturally carry the idea of a flour corresponding to the graham flour above mentioned. It is, however, a misnamed trade-mark for a flour produced in a special manner which consists in the removal of the outer or purely branny covering of the grain. "Entire wheat" flour, therefore, contains all the ingredients of wheat grains, save those which are found in the outer branny covering.

Gluten Flour.—This is a name applied to a flour which is produced by removing the greater part of the starch from ordinary flour. It is especially recommended for the use of diabetic patients. Unfortunately, the name is very commonly applied to flours made from wheat containing a little higher percentage of protein than the ordinary and sometimes even to an ordinary wheat flour. Its use with such a product is purely fraudulent.

Mixed Flour.—The act of Congress of June 13, 1898, defines mixed flour and imposes a tax upon the manufacture, sale, importation, and exportation of that article. The maximum tax laid upon mixed flour is 4 cents on a barrel of 196 pounds. The total number of barrels of mixed flour returned for taxation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, was 362; half barrels, 59,443; quarter barrels, 6,265; eighth barrels, 24,974. The total quantity of mixed flour returned for taxation during the year is 5,495,937 pounds. The above data show that the amount of mixed flour offered for sale is a very small part of the total flour manufactured in the United States. It may be that there is a great deal of flour mixed and sold in violation of the law since it is quite impossible in the inspection of the stores to supervise all the transactions of business deals in flour; especially is it believed that rye flour and buckwheat flour are often adulterated by mixing with them the flour of other cereals. This adulteration is not one which is at all injurious to health but is simply practiced for the purpose of making a rye or buckwheat flour look whiter or because the added flours are cheaper than the real rye or buckwheat.

Properties Affecting the Commercial Value of Flour.—Aside from its nutritive properties wheat flour has a commercial value depending upon its color and texture and upon the gluten which it contains. The character of gluten also varies largely in different varieties of wheat and in wheat grown in different localities. A chemical examination will not always tell the bread making properties of a flour, and the character of the bread itself depends often quite as much upon the skill of the baker as upon the flour which is used.

In cases where loaves are sold by weight, a flour with a high percentage of