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/420

 to get a cheaper article, is likewise entitled, as well as the rich man, to protection against deleterious substances. In the present state of our knowledge, glucose is not regarded by the majority of hygienists as a substance injurious to health. If it be injurious it is due more to a lack of care in manufacture than to any inherent properties. Pure glucose, being simply a hydrolyzed production of starch, cannot be regarded as a substance injurious to health. The objections to glucose which have been legitimately made are due to the fact that the acids which have been used in converting the starch and also the sulfurous acid which has been used in bleaching the product have not been entirely removed. It appears that the glucose used for food purposes can be freed from all objection by inverting the starch with which it is made with disastase and avoiding the use of all bleaching reagents. The glucose thus made would not be water-white, nor is it desirable for edible purposes that it be so, since it is always, except, perhaps, in the manufacture of certain candies, used in connection with naturally colored food products. There is no reason to believe that a glucose made as above and possessing, as it naturally would, an amber or reddish color would be made less desirable than a product which is absolutely colorless. This suggestion, therefore, is made to the manufacturer of glucose for edible purposes in the interest of public health and to avoid any possible condemnation of the glucose by reason of the method of manufacture, namely, that the use of acid in the manufacture of glucose be discontinued, that malt or some other form of disastase be substituted and that bleaching, except by passing through animal charcoal, be entirely omitted. The product made in this way would be free from the objections which have been, and may in the future still be, urged with reason against the use of the article at the present time.

Preserves.—The term "preserves" is a general one which is applied in common language to a preparation of fruit preserved by boiling with sugar until complete sterilization is accomplished. The term in its general application includes the different varieties of preserves which have already been mentioned, namely, jams, marmalades, etc. It must also be extended to include the class of fruit products known as jellies, though, as a rule, it is not made so comprehensive in meaning, inasmuch as the jelly does not contain any of the solid particles of fruit. Perhaps there is no other part of the food-manufacturing industry which is so universally practiced in the household as the manufacture of preserves. Not only is this true of farm life in the country but also of those living in the city. The sterilization of fresh fruit without the use of sugar is not nearly so common as the making of the domestic supply of preserved fruits in the sense above mentioned. There is only one sufficient reason for the preparation of such foods, namely, the suspicion which attaches to the manufactured article appearing upon the market. So universal has been the custom of artificially coloring the product, and of