Food poisoning / by Edwin Oakes Jordan.

  • Edwin O. Jordan
Date:
[1917]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Food poisoning / by Edwin Oakes Jordan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    flour is bleached white with nitrogen peroxide, but in many instances the modification of color is based on preposterously artificial standards. The use of poison¬ ous aniline dyes for staining candies all the colors of the rainbow must be defended, if at all, on aesthetic rather than on sanitary grounds. Some coloring matters in common use, such as the annatto, universally employed in coloring butter, are believed to be without harmful effect, but others are to be viewed with suspicion, and still others, like copper sulphate, are unquestionably dangerous. The whole practice of food coloration at its best involves waste and may entail serious danger to health. Broadly speaking, all modification of the natural color of food¬ stuffs is based on an idle convention and should be prohibited in the interest of the public welfare. Bleached flour, stained butter, dyed jelly and ice-cream are no whit more desirable as foods than the natural untreated substances; in fact, they are essentially less desirable. If the whole process of food coloration were known to the public, artificially colored foods would not be especially appetizing. Economically the practice is singularly futile. The artificial whitening of flour with the highly poisonous nitrogen peroxide seems hardly worth the extra tax of fifty cents to a dollar a barrel. Such bleaching with a poisonous gas certainly does not improve the nutritive or digestive qualities of flour; it may be insidiously injurious. The solution of the problem of food coloration seems to lie in a policy of educational enlightenment which shall make natural foods appear more desirable than those sold under false colors. Custom, however, buttressed by skilful adver- ^ • tising, offers a difficult barrier to reform in this field.
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