Food Safety Tips From the 30s

Tuckerfan · Sep 26, 2026

What with the problems we've had with stuff imported from China, it might be handy to keep this information around.

LOW prices for commodities stimulate the business of the food faker, permitting him to sell his adulterated and “doctored” foodstuffs at prices lower than the lowest that can possibly be asked for pure articles.

However clever the faker may be, science can catch him and his spurious concoctions by very simple means; means so simple indeed that every householder may take advantage of them to protect the health and well-being of his family.

No elaborate chemical apparatus is necessary and the tests are simple enough to be handled by the most unskilled person.

It often happens that very cheap tea has been treated with coal-tar dye-stuff to make it more “green”.

An Easy Tea Test

The tea cheater may be very easily caught by the simple expedient of rubbing some of the tea between the folds of a clean cloth. If the tea has been dyed, some of the dye will be found to discolor the cloth used for the rubbing. In conducting this experiment, the tea should be squeezed hard as it is rubbed.

Chicory in cheap coffee is an old trick. While chicory is not a dangerous adulterant, it is spurious and has no place with good coffee.

In general it may be said that a good, pure coffee will float if placed on the surface of cold water held in a glass. If heavily adulterated, most of the adulterated portion will slowly sink.

This test may be made more positive by shaking a small amount of the coffee in a saturated solution of ordinary table salt and water. The coffee is pure if nearly all of it floats and the liquid becomes a pale yellow. A saturated solution is prepared by warming the water and dissolving salt in it until the water refuses to take any more.

Not all adulterants are as harmless as chicory. One of the most dangerous ones might be found in pickles. The food faker knows that pickles and the vinegar solution that preserves them, may be made to take on a beautiful green color by the presence of copper. This is done by boiling the pickles in copper kettles.

Nothing more elaborate than an ordinary iron nail is needed to expose this little trick. A small amount of the vinegar is poured out into a cup and an iron nail is placed in it.

This is set away for a day or so and if the pickles contain a dangerous amount of copper, the nail will be found to have been copper-plated in the meantime. If this happens, there is no fit place for the pickles but the garbage can.
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Much more at the link.

Ancalagon · Nov 28, 2011

Chicory in cheap coffee is an old trick. While chicory is not a dangerous adulterant, it is spurious and has no place with good coffee.
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Fah. Q.

Prufrock · Nov 28, 2011

Neat!

But a lot of the tests require acquiring chemicals such as iodine, mercuric nitrate, sulphuric acid, ether . . . these days having simple stuff like that could get your life destroyed by the government because DRUG WAR!

Ah, the good ol' days.

Bickendan · Nov 28, 2011

I see sodium benzoate was decried back in the 30's.

Amaris · Nov 29, 2011

I wonder how many high school students would understand the words used in the article.

Talkahuano · Nov 30, 2011

No elaborate chemical apparatus is necessary and the tests are simple enough to be handled by the most unskilled person.
...
To this is added two teaspoonfuls of mercuric nitrate. The resulting solution is filtered and added to a solution of picric acid of equal volume.
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Picric acid is highly acidic, and it's an explosive. Mercuric nitrate was used to treat furs (I forget what for) but it got banned because it has MERCURY in it.

So... go go toxic home tricks that anyone can do?

Scott Hamilton Robert E Ron Paul Lee · Dec 1, 2011

We can't have people handling materials that the romans handled!

garamet · Dec 1, 2011

Talkahuano said: ↑

Mercuric nitrate was used to treat furs (I forget what for) but it got banned because it has MERCURY in it.
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It was used in felting to make hats, among other things, and absorption through the skin over long periods of time causes nasty neurological symptoms and cognitive impairment. Thus the expression "mad as a hatter."

Paladin · Dec 1, 2011

apostle83 said: ↑

We can't have people handling materials that the romans handled!
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We know a bit more than they did.

Scott Hamilton Robert E Ron Paul Lee · Dec 2, 2011

Paladin said: ↑

apostle83 said: ↑

We can't have people handling materials that the romans handled!
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We know a bit more than they did.
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Indeed!

Mirah · Dec 3, 2011

John said: ↑

I wonder how many high school students would understand the words used in the article.
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What is an article? Just kidding. I often think that kids will not know lettuce does not come in a bag, or how to read a clock, or even flush a toilet or turn on a sink anymore.

Tuckerfan · Sep 26, 2026

It's bad enough that this kind of stuff was needed once in the 21st Century, let alone twice. But here we are.

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Food Safety Tips From the 30s

Tuckerfan BMF

Ancalagon Mr. Ingenious Administrator Formerly Important

Prufrock Disturbing the Universe

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Scott Hamilton Robert E Ron Paul Lee Straight Awesome

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Scott Hamilton Robert E Ron Paul Lee Straight Awesome

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