Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/64

60 supposed demand, but the fact that the sulfites might injure the flavor and lower the value of the food from a dietetic standpoint, was entirely lost sight of by the packers.

That much of the food still on the market has been badly spoiled by the art of the colorist, as well as at the bleachery, goes without saying. It is necessary to mention only a few of the foods that have been mistreated in this way. Maraschino cherries are sometimes first bleached and then dyed with coal-tar colors, like a piece of dress goods, any color to suit the prevailing style. Tomato catsup has to bear the burden of sometimes containing much of the refuse, peelings and inferior fruit of the cannery, preserved, it is true, by benzoate of soda, but brought up to the brilliant color desired, by the liberal use of aniline colors. We find it hard to resist the suggestion that in some of these products color is added to conceal inferiority. The best tomato catsup, however, is not made after the receipt mentioned above.

Within the last two or three years artificial color has not been as abundantly used in jams and jellies as formerly, thanks to the provision in the laws of most states, that the constituents of the product must be plainly stated on the label, or the goods would be condemned as misbranded.

Now-a-days you can actually buy ground mustard of good quality that has not been colored yellow with turmeric to cover the inferiority of an article of low grade. Since lemons happen to be yellow, the manufacturers of the extract have thought it allowable to make a weak alcoholic solution of the oil of lemon and color it yellow with a coal-tar dye so that it might appeal to the eye of the purchaser, who, of course, does not investigate by removing the cork and tasting the material. It was a serious fraud upon the consumer. Fortunately, however, at the present time, the people are becoming educated so that there is a demand for an almost colorless extract of lemon, of standard strength. They were no doubt surprised to learn that it did not have to be yellow to be good.

Not long ago the author had occasion to examine a can of French peas (petits pois). They were of a brilliant green color and evidently colored by the use of sulfate of copper. A very tasty brass label was soldered on to one side of the can. When this was removed, however, there appeared in English the statement, "colored with sulfate of copper." Thus the deception practised had been concealed from the consumer.

Bleaching, as carried on by the use of moisture and sunlight, upon the household linen, was apparently a natural process, at least it did not injure the goods. By growing plants away from the sunlight, and thus retarding the growth of the chlorophyl cells, it is possible to bleach the stems and other parts. The natural color of fruit is developed by