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/535

 right-handed. Levulose, as the name implies, is a sugar which turns the plane of polarization to the left. The temperature of the solution has a very marked influence upon this active property,—the lower the temperature the greater the left-handed rotation. A honey which has a strong left-handed polarization, therefore, at ordinary temperature is one in which the levulose is present in full proportion or very slight excess. The other constituents of honey, namely, the pollen which is mechanically entangled therein, the dust or dirt which is mechanically attached thereto, the formic acid imparted thereto by the bee, and the other ingredients, are extremely minute in quantity and are not, as a rule, expressed as percentage constituents. In fact the most of them are merely accidental constituents.

Adulteration of Honey.—Perhaps there is no common food product, with the possible exception of condimental substances such as pepper and spices, that has been subjected to such extensive and general adulterations as honey.

The high price of honey, its position as a luxury as well as a food product, and its attractive flavor and aroma have all combined to make it a favorite product for adulteration. In addition to this the invention in the last third of a century of an artificial product resembling honey very closely in its physical properties and being itself a saccharine body, namely glucose, has put into the hands of the adulterator an ideal substitute for the natural product. There is only one reason why the adulteration of honey with glucose has not been more extensive than it is, namely, the ease with which the chemist can detect it. The chemical properties of glucose are very distinct from those of honey itself. In spite of this fact, however, the adulteration of honey has been most extensively exploited and until the methods of detecting it were developed it was almost universally practiced. Glucose is a water-white saccharine semi-*viscous mass made by the hydrolysis of starch with an acid and therefore forms the body upon which the adulterated article can be built. It has a low saccharine value and cannot be used alone but must necessarily be mingled with the honey. The amount of real honey used is, as a rule, a minimum to give the flavor and taste of the genuine article to the admixture. It is believed at the present time that this method of adulterating honey is very much less practiced than in former years and this is due, as has been said, to the ease with which it can be detected and also, it may be added, to the increased rigidity of national, state, and municipal inspection, rendering it difficult to place an adulterated article such as this upon the market without detection. Incalculable harm has been done to the honey trade of the country by the practice of this style of adulteration. Only liquid honey, that is separated or strained, can be easily adulterated with glucose. Often, however, an attempt has been made to still further deceive the customer by placing a portion of the genuine comb honey in a jar and then filling it with the adul-