Skeptic March 2020

JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 54 (3232)

Image: Wellcome Collection

Accum was a popular science celebrity, and the results of his

food fraud research were shocking. His book caused a public

uproar. The sheer size of the problem was staggering. “The

eager and insatiable thirst for gain” had led to food fraud on

an industrial scale across the whole of society.

Take bread, for a relatively harmless example. Almost all

of the bread eaten by working class people contained “alum,”

an aluminum salt that bakers used to bleach low quality flour.

This may have caused health problems for some people, but

it was nowhere close to the most dangerous thing in the

food supply. Accum felt that the alum issue was “compara-

tively unimportant.” However, almost allbakers secretlyused

alum to make cheap bread look like expensive bread. This

hoodwinked customers.

And yet, bakers had little choice. They were forced to

cheat because everyone else did. Honest bread either looked

worse or cost more. In either case, customers would buy

from the dishonest bakery next door.

Some counterfeit food frauds cheated people out of

money without harming them physically. For example,

cofee was almost always blended with a large amount of

cheaper chicory or burnt peas or beans. Indeed, some scam-

mers sold “cofee” that contained “not a particle of genuine

cofee.” Accum examined pepper samples that were heavily

blended with other plant ingredients and clay. Vinegar and

lemonade were imitated using cheaper kinds of acid. “Gen-

uine mustard,” Accum found, “is perhaps rarely to be met

with in the shops.” Mustard samples were typically stufed

with cheaper food ingredients such as flour, radish, and

turmeric. “Cream is often adulterated with rice powder,” and

a “liberal quantity of water is often added to the London

milk,” Accum explained.

These fraudulent ingredients were at least edible, for the

most part. But they weren’t harmless. The ugly truth was

that thousands of crooks were systematically stealing

from people who struggled to aford food. This was

deeply unfair. It also endangered the poorest, most

vulnerable people in society, such as underfed

children in orphanages.

Deadly Swindles

Accum saved his greatest anger for scammers

who put lives at risk. One “disgusting...

abominable” but common practice was

to inflate meat and fish using “breath

respired from the lungs” of the seller.

This widely used “dirty trick”

contaminated the meat supply

with contagious diseases.

Other scammers poisoned

food with deadly toxins. Poisonous laurel leaves were used to

flavor custards, wines, and fake tea. Another poisonous plant

was used to make watered down beer more intoxicating. That

single scam was a large industry in itself, involving countless

importers, drug sellers, brewers, and pub owners.

But the gravest danger was heavy metal poisoning. Accum’s

tests revealed dangerous levels of copper and lead in count-

less fraudulent foods. Fake tea made from ordinary shrubs

was colored with copper. Copper was also used to make pickles

look greener. Scammers used lead to color many foods,

including wine, liquor, cayenne pepper, and anchovies. Most

shockingly, bothcopper and lead were regularly used in candy

for children!

Accum’s readers were furious to learn that the “possible

sacrifice of a fellow-creature’s life, is a secondary considera-

tion among unprincipled dealers.” This truth was also terrify-

ing. Accum’s tests could detect which foods were poisonous,

but most people weren’t chemists. As long as the authorities

did nothing, helpless consumers were left at the mercy of

criminals. Accum marveled,

It is really astonishing that the penal law is not more

efectually enforced against practices so inimical to the

public welfare. The man who robs a fellow subject of a

few shillings on the highway is sentenced to death, while

he who distributes a slow poison to a whole community

escapes unpunished.

The whole situation was completely bonkers. And yet, it

wouldn’t get better for decades. Despite Accum’s evidence,

the laws were not changed. Accum soon left England after

an unrelated scandal. (He tore pages out of library books.)

Looking Closely

Crooks went right on selling the same fake and dangerous

food for 30 long years after Accum’s book. No one stopped

them. People became so distrustful of grocers and bakers

that they fell for exaggerated rumors. Some peo-

ple worried that bread contained ground up

human bones. This wasn’t true, but if no one

was checking, how could anyone be sure?

Then, in 1850, another scientist finally

took up the food crusade. Arthur Hill Hassall

was a young doctor who became curious

about the genuineness of the cofee sold in

London. As we’ve seen, cofee was usually

adulterated, but this was surprisingly

diicult to prove. It was easy to detect

lead using the chemistry of the time,

but harder to tell the diference

between two organic materials

such as cofee and chicory.

However, Hassall thought he

could look at this problem

Science Fights Back

68

Arthur Hill Hassall