Foods and Their Adulteration: Origin, Manufacture, and Composition of Food Products; Description of Common Adulterations, Food Standards, and National Food Laws and RegulationsWiley, Harvey Washington
Science
Foods and Their Adulteration: Origin, Manufacture, and Composition of Food Products; Description of Common Adulterations, Food Standards, and National Food Laws and Regulations
Wiley, Harvey Washington
Food; Food adulteration and inspection
_Egg Substitutes._--Many products have been put upon the market of a
yellow color and containing protein under the guise of eggs. There is a
number of so-called egg powders offered for making cakes, etc., which
contain no egg at all. They are composed of other forms of protein
matter, generally casein from milk, and colored to resemble the egg in
tint. Starchy substances are also colored and sold as egg powder. These
substances may be regarded as adulterations when sold under the name
or in the guise of an egg product. There are no other adulterations of
eggs of any consequence practiced except the simulation of egg material
by such products as those just mentioned.
_Poisonous Principles in Eggs._--While fresh eggs for most people
form a food product entirely devoid of danger, nutritious and easily
digestible, eggs may easily become injurious and even poisonous.
According to experiments made by Bouchard (Scientific American, August
11, 1896, page 95), even fresh eggs, unless the sanitary conditions in
which the fowls live are well cared for, may become very poisonous.
The fowl producing eggs, as a rule, is not a cleanly animal, and this
is especially true of the duck. Thus injurious organic material rich
in microbes may contaminate the egg and the microbes may penetrate
the shell thus rendering the egg unsuitable for consumption. Eggs
contaminated in this way have given evidence of toxic phenomena even
in a fresh state. Experiments have shown too that the food material
of eggs if directly injected into the blood of an animal produces
toxic effects whereas if injected into the stomach no unfavorable
effects are produced. Egg albumin, that is, the albumin of the white
of the egg, when fed in considerable quantities to animals partially
escapes digestion and thus becomes a source of irritation and even
of poisoning. There are many people who are remarkably sensitive to
the influence of eggs and those who possess this idiosyncrasy are
injured even by eggs which are perfectly harmless to other people. A
large number of species of injurious microbes which infect eggs have
been identified. These even are found in fresh eggs in the unsanitary
conditions above mentioned. Eggs kept for a long while in cold storage
or decayed in any way are extremely injurious. Fortunately decayed
eggs are self protecting since they can only be eaten by accident. If,
however, decayed eggs be eaten in diluted form by mixing with other
foods they may be eaten without their characteristic odor or taste
being known and thus great injury arises. It is advised in all cases
where eggs are to be kept for some time even in cold storage to varnish
them with some substance impenetrable to air. For this purpose, as has
already been mentioned, soluble glass, which is chemically a silicate
of soda, has been found extremely effective. Any of the varnishes which
make the shell of an egg air tight tends to restrain the activities
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