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/521

 fermentation, or is fed to the mules on the plantations. It is also employed to a certain extent for mixing purposes as indicated above.

Analysis of First, Second, and Third Molasses.—

The increasing content of dextrose and levulose, of ash, acids, and gums, and the decreasing content of sucrose or pure sugar are characteristic of the second and third molasses.

The above analyses show the progressive change in molasses due to the separation of the successive portions of sugar and indicate the lowering of the quality of the molasses, at least for food purposes, as the separation of the sugar becomes more complete. It is evident that in the manufacture of sugar in this way, in which very probably an effort is made to get the highest possible yield, the resulting final molasses is a substance quite unfit for human consumption.

Sugar-house Molasses.—Attention has already been called to the production of sugar-house molasses or sugar refinery molasses. This is a product which in its physical appearance is far superior to the third molasses of the sugar factory and this superiority is due to the fact that all suspended matter in the refined molasses has been separated by filtration. In so far as soluble materials which are not food is concerned, however, the refinery molasses contains even larger proportions than the sugar factory molasses. The refinery molasses is not usually considered suitable for food except when diluted as has been before indicated in the way of mixing sirup.

Mixed Sirups.—By far the greater part of the sirups used in the United States are mixtures of two or more saccharine substances. The glucose of commerce is the base and perhaps chief constituent of the most of these mixtures. The glucose, being colorless and of a thick body, forms an ideal base as far as physical properties are concerned, for a table sirup. The quantity used varies very largely, but in general the glucose constitutes by far the larger percentage of the mixed product. Since glucose has only a very slightly sweet taste and is devoid of the general palatable properties which make a sirup attractive, it is colored and flavored with the product of the sugar cane or the maple tree. Sorghum sirup is also used very extensively in mixing. The process of mixing is an extremely simple one. The glucose is warmed until it is easily workable and the added sirups or molasses