Swindled
Page 36
This would be a huge undertaking, but even so it would not be enough on its own, because so many frauds are invisible. Government would also have to make sure it kept food laws and enforcement up-to-date, on the basis of the latest scientific knowledge, in order to keep one step ahead of the fraudsters (or at least, to make sure the fraudsters aren’t always one step ahead of the people trying to stop them). Much of this science—from DNA testing to mass spectroscopy—is bound to be too technical for the general public to understand, remaining the preserve of experts. We as citizens would therefore have to trust these scientists to do the right thing. With the confidence of the latest science behind them, governments would have to be fearless about prosecuting swindlers, when they are found out. The story of adulteration has been a story of the repeated failure of modern politics to value consumer interests above those of the market. The future could be different, though. Bad and falsified food is not a necessary fate for modern societies. With climate change, food is becoming more expensive and contested after the first period in Western history of relative abundance. In a world preoccupied with waste, there is every opportunity and reason now for governments to take more responsibility for the food supply—just as they are taking more responsibility for clean air and carbon emissions— not by telling us what to eat but by eliminating poisonous and deceptive foods from production.
For the moment, though, most of this is yet to happen. In the history of food adulteration, government intervention to stop bad food has always come later than it should; and it has never been adequate to the problem. While we are waiting—and where possible, lobbying—for governments to do more to improve the food supply, we as individual consumers should do what is in our power to prevent ourselves and our families being cheated and poisoned. If we embrace even a simple understanding of what makes good food, there are plenty of ways we can minimize, if not eradicate, the risks of being taken for a ride.
If you don’t want to be swindled, here is what you can do (assuming you are fortunate enough to live in a country where basic food standards are enforced). It won’t be enough, but it will be a start. Buy food fresh, in whole form. Buy organic, where possible. Buy your food from someone you trust; if they live nearby, so much the better. Cook it yourself and familiarize yourself with the ingredients that go into proper food, so that when you are served a fake you will know the difference, and have the confidence to complain. Above all, trust your own senses. You know more than you think you do. Hear the noise a piece of good chocolate makes when it snaps; see the gleam on a fish that is truly fresh; taste the sweetness in a fresh cinnamon stick; inhale the perfume of real Basmati rice. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Notes
Full details of the works cited in short form can be found in the bibliography.
Preface
1. McGee (1984), p. 536.
2. Barton Hutt (1978), p. 507.
1: German Ham and English Pickles
1. See Accum, Culinary Chemistry (1821), passim.
2. Accum, A Treatise on Adulterations of Food (1820), p. 13.
3. Reproduced in Accum, A Treatise on the Art of Making Wine (1820), p. x.
4. Ibid., p. xxii.
5. Accum (1966), p. 32.
6. Accum, Treatise on Adulterations, (1820), p. 31.
7. Ibid., p. 32.
8. Ibid., p. iii.
9. Smollett, Humphry Clinker (1771), chap. 38.
10. Reproduced in Accum, Treatise on Wine, p. xxi.
11. Browne (1925).
12. Accum (1815), p. 77.
13. On Winsor, see Everard (1949), pp. 17–26, and Williams (2004), passim.
14. Accum (1815), p. 187.
15. Ibid., pp. 170–73.
16. Browne (1925), p. 829.
17. See, for example, ibid., p. 832; Cole (1951), p. 128.
18. Accum, (1821), Bread, pp. 22–23.
19. Rumohr (1993), p. 126.
20. Ibid., p. 116.
21. Hughson (1817), pp. 196–97.
22. Stieb (1966), p. 163.
23. Accum, Accum’s Chemical Amusements (1817), p. iii.
24. European Magazine, June 1820.
25. Browne (1925), p. 839.
26. Ibid., p. 839, reminiscence of Silliman.
27. Browne (1925), p. 845.
28. Ibid., p. 847.
29. Ibid., pp. 846–47.
30. Hudson (1992), p. 61.
31. Accum (1966), p. 21.
32. Filby (1934), p. 18.
33. Accum (1966), pp. 222–23.
34. Philosophical Magazine, vol. 54 (1819), p. 218.
35. Accum (1966), p. 239.
36. Ibid., p. 244.
37. Accum, Bread, p. 128.
38. Quoted in Browne (1925), p. 1031.
39. Accum, Treatise on Adulterations (1820), p. 14.
40. Accum, Culinary Chemistry (1821), p. 59.
41. Accum (1966), pp. 25–28.
42. Spencer (2002), pp. 208, 246.
43. Acton (1993), p. 21.
44. Accum, Culinary Chemistry (1821), p. 55.
45. Ibid., pp. 249–56.
46. Accum, Treatise on Wines (1820), pp. 48, 46.
47. Accum, Culinary Chemistry (1821), p. 150.
48. Ibid., p. 309.
49. Accum, Treatise on Adulterations (1820), pp. 244.
50. Rundell (1818), p. 283.
51. Accum (1966), p. 185.
52. Accum, Culinary Chemistry (1821), p. 315.
53. Ibid., p. 27.
54. Ibid., p. 24.
55. Accum (1966), p. 98.
56. Ibid., p. 100.
57. Accum, Culinary Chemistry (1821), p. 4.
58. Accum (1966), p. 218.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid., p. 225.
61. Accum, Culinary Chemistry (1821), p. 331.
62. Accum (1966), pp. 231, 233.
63. Accum, Culinary Chemistry (1821), p. 332.
64. Accum (1966), pp. 232–33.
65. Ibid., p. 31.
66. Ibid., p. 224.
67. Ibid.
68. Letter to The Times, 29 May 1824.
69. Accum (1966), p. 19.
70. Ibid., pp. 206–10.
71. Ibid., p. 210.
72. Ibid., p. 15.
73. Ibid., p. 20.
74. Ibid., p. 16.
75. Ibid., pp. 211–14.
76. Ibid., pp. 163–70.
77. Ibid., p. 172.
78. Ibid., p. 22.
79. Ibid., p. 23.
80. Ibid., p. 22.
81. Ibid., p. 23.
82. The Times, 5 March 1818, p. 3.
83. Accum (1966), pp. 126, 116.
84. Ibid., p. 157.
85. Child (1798), pp. 6, 21.
86. Accum (1966), pp. 143–44.
87. Monckton (1966), p. 159.
88. Accum (1966), p. 123.
89. Patton (1989).
90. Spencer (2002), p. 263.
91. Accum (1966), p. 148.
92. Taylor (1972), pp. 50–51.
93. For accounts of the book mutilation affair, see Browne (1925); Cole (1951); Gee (2004).
94. Greenaway (1971); Archives of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, vol. 6, 16 April 1821.
95. Quoted in Browne (1925), p. 1142.
96. “Mr Frederick Accum,” letter to The Times, 10 January 1821, signed “A.C.”
97. “Mr Accum’s Case,” The Times, 6 April 1821.
98. Reynolds (1822), note to line 161.
99. Browne (1925), p. 1140.
100. Cited Cole (1951), p. 141.
101. Greenaway (1971), vol. 6, 23 December 1820.
102. Parmentier (1803), p. 181.
2: A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread
1. Phillips (2001), p. 41.
2. Phillips (2000), p. 32.
3. Pliny (1968), book 14: 130, vol. 4, p. 273.
4. Ibid., book 14: 17, vol. 4, p. 197.
5. Quoted in Cato (1933), pp. 48–49.
6. Juvenal (1984), sat
ire 5.
7. Phillips (2000).
8. Pliny, book 23: 45–46.
9. Columella, De Re Rustica, 12: 19–21.
10. Cato (1933), pp. 48–49.
11. Phillips (2000), p. 34.
12. Eisinger (1982), p. 298.
13. Ibid., p. 294.
14. Filby (1934), p. 140.
15. Ibid., p. 146.
16. Accum, (1966), p. 82.
17. Filby (1934), p. 145.
18. Drummond and Wilbraham (1939), p. 47.
19. Addison and Steele, The Tatler vol. 2 (1797), p. 110.
20. Loubère (1978), p. 73.
21. Ibid., p. 166.
22. Quoted Phillips (2000), p. 32.
23. Fielden (1989), p. 21.
24. Filby (1934), p. 131.
25. Eisinger (1982).
26. Fielden (1989), p. 4.
27. Ibid., p. 165.
28. Ibid., p. 6.
29. Filby (1934), p. 130.
30. Fielden (1989), p. 19.
31. Ibid., pp. 5–6.
32. Accum (1966), p. 79.
33. Filby (1934), p. 158.
34. Dillon (2004), passim.
35. Drummond and Wilbraham (1939), p. 47.
36. Redding (1833).
37. Loubère (1978), pp. 252–53.
38. Stanziani (2003), p. 128.
39. Ibid.
40. Loubère (1978), p. 166.
41. Stanziani (2003), p. 137.
42. Robinson (1999), p. 4.
43. Fielden (1989).
44. Atkin and Lee (2005).
45. Catchpole (2006); Shaugnessy (2005).
46. “Austrian Wines,” New York Times, 22 October 1986.
47. Haydon (2001).
48. Zupko (1977), p. 26.
49. Ibid., p. 27.
50. Ibid., p. 36.
51. Studer (1911), p. xxi.
52. Zupko (1977), p. 36.
53. Studer (1911), p. xxi.
54. Ibid., p. xxvi.
55. Drummond and Wilbraham (1939), p. 40.
56. Studer (1911), p. xxvii.
57. Kaplan (1996), p. 2.
58. Ibid., p. 475.
59. Ibid., p. 471.
60. Ibid., p. 479.
61. McCance and Widdowson (1956), p. 32.
62. Garnsey (1988), pp. 28, 29.
63. Platt (1596), p. 1.
64. Camporesi (1989).
65. Smith and Christian (1984), pp. 347ff.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Observer, 15 February 2004.
69. On the long history of fears of food, see Ferrières (2006).
70. Jackson (1758), p. 12.
71. Drummond and Wilbraham (1939), p. 222.
72. McCance and Widdowson (1956), pp. 23–24.
73. Ibid., p. 26.
74. Manning (1757), p. 4.
75. Anon., Poison Detected (1757), p. 6.
76. Markham (1757), p. 22.
77. Anon. (1757), pp. 3–4.
78. Ibid., pp. 8, 16.
79. Manning (1757), p. 12.
80. Collins (1758), p. 37.
81. Ibid., p. 19.
82. Drummond and Wilbraham (1939), p. 226.
83. Markham (1757), p. 6.
84. Jackson (1758), p. 8.
85. Filby (1934), p. 99.
86. Ibid., p. 101.
87. Manning (1757), pp. 3–4.
88. Jackson (1758), p. 14.
89. http://www.ilo.org, accessed 31 May 2006.
90. Accum (1966), p. 106.
91. Drummond and Wilbraham (1939), p. 349.
92. David (1994), p. 191.
93. Ibid., p. 193.
94. Smollett (1771), chap. 38.
95. Jackson (1758), p. 13.
96. McCance and Widdowson (1956), p. 32.
97. Anon. (1757), p. 54.
98. Quoted McCance and Widdowson (1956), p. 32.
99. Rubin (2005), p. 135.
100. Renard (1918), p. 34.
101. MacKenney (1987), p. 18.
102. Renard (1918), p. 33.
103. Ibid., p. 38.
104. Ibid., p. 33.
105. Dorey (2007).
106. Swanson (1989), p. 17.
107. Ibid., p. 22.
108. Quoted in Kaplan (1996).
109. Renard (1918), p. 55.
110. Patton (1989), p. 9.
111. Whittet (1968), p. 801.
112. Toussaint-Samat (1992), p. 493.
113. Filby (1934), p. 24.
114. Whittet (1968), p. 803.
115. Filby (1934), p. 25.
116. Shipperbottom (1993), p. 247.
117. Filby (1934), p. 27.
118. Quoted in ibid., p. 30.
119. Shipperbottom (1993), p. 251.
120. Filby (1934), p. 28.
3: Government Mustard
1. Eliot (1884) p. 323.
2. Hassall (1855), p. 160.
3. Punch, vol. 20, 1 February 1851, p. 44.
4. Tickletooth (1999), p. 185.
5. Mayhew (1980), vol. 2, pp. 322–23.
6. Ibid., p. 323.
7. Ibid.
8. Freeman (1989), p. 11.
9. Engels (1993), p. 80.
10. Mayhew (1980), vol. 2, p. 2.
11. Ibid.
12. Engels (1993), p. 80.
13. Mayhew (1980), p. 252.
14. Freeman (1989), p. 26.
15. Engels (1993), p. 80.
16. Ibid., p. 81.
17. Tickletooth (1999), p. 185.
18. Mayhew (1980), p. 260.
19. Ibid., p. 252.
20. Ibid., p. 260.
21. Engels (1993), p. 112.
22. Burnett (1989), chap. 5.
23. Anon. (1855b), p. 249.
24. See, for example, Normandy, Chevallier.
25. Acton (1857), p. 1.
26. Chevallier (1854), p. 138.
27. Anon. (1855a), p. 185.
28. Burnett (1989), chap. 5.
29. Ibid.
30. Acton (1857), p. 19; Burnett (1989), chap. 5.
31. Burnett (1989), chap. 5.
32. Anon. (1855a), p. 57.
33. Chevallier (1854), vol. 2, p. 173.
34. Acton (1857), p. 28.
35. Mitchell (1848), p. xi.
36. Ibid., p. x.
37. Acton (1857), p. 17.
38. Anon. (1851), p. 81.
39. Ibid., p. 9.
40. Acton (1857), p. 31.
41. Mitchell (1848), p. x.
42. Stanziani (2005), pp. 51, 52.
43. Anon. (1851), p. 43.
44. Normandy (1850), p. 81.
45. Anon. (1851), p. 43.
46. Mitchell (1848), p. 155.
47. Anon. (1851), p. 40.
48. Ibid., p. 45.
49. Normandy (1850), p. 79.
50. Chevallier (1854), p. 138.
51. Anon. (1851), p. ix.
52. Anon. (1830), pp. 135, 127.
53. Ibid., pp. 117–18.
54. Ibid., p. 33.
55. Quoted in Drummond and Wilbraham (1939), p. 345.
56. Letheby (1870), p. 265.
57. Mitchell (1848), pp. 79, 186.
58. Ibid., pp. vi, vii.
59. Ibid., p. 41.
60. Stieb (1966), pp. 52–56.
61. Ibid., p. 28.
62. Cited in Hassall (1893), p. 44.
63. Clayton (1908), p. xiii.
64. Stieb (1966), p. 175.
65. Hassall (1893), p. 47.
66. Ibid., p. 43.
67. Ibid.
68. “Record of the Results of Microscopial and Chemical Analyses of the Solids and Fluids Consumed by All classes of the Public. Coffee and Its Adulterations [Second Report],” Lancet, vol. 57, no. 1443, 26 April 1851, p. 466.
69. Hassall (1893), p. 43.
70. Gray (1983), p. 99.
71. Hassall (1893), p. 43.
72. See Rowlinson (1982), p. 64, for illustration.
73. Hassall (1893), p. 44.
> 74. Rowlinson (1982), p. 65.
75. Stieb (1966), p. 179
76. Hassall (1893), p. 44.
77. Ibid., p. 46.
78. Gray (1983), p. 103.
79. “Spices and Their Adulterations,” Lancet, vol. 59, no. 1487, 28 February 1852, p. 226.
80. Hassall (1893), pp. 50–51.
81. Gray (1983), p. 106.
82. Hutchins (1909), p. 15.
83. Quoted in Gray (1983), p. 101.
84. “Record of the Results of Microscopial and Chemical Analyses of the Solids and Fluids Consumed by All Classes of the Public: Water and Its Impurities,” Lancet, vol. 60, no. 1511, 14 August 1852, p. 257.
85. Ibid.
86. Hassall (1893), p. 62.
87. Ibid., p. 69.
88. Ibid., p. 46.
89. “Arrow-Root and Its Adulterations,” Lancet, vol. 57, no. 1431, 1 February 1851, p. 143.
90. Hassall (1855), p. 175.
91. “Report by the Analytical Sanitary Commission on Farinaceous Foods,” Lancet, vol. 57, no. 1451, 21 June 1851, pp. 675–79.
92. “Report by the Analytical Sanitary Commission on Farinaceous Foods,” Lancet, vol. 57, no. 1450, 14 June 1851, p. 654.
93. Nelson (2005).
94. “Report by the Analytical Sanitary Commission on Ervalenta, Revalenta, etc., etc.,” Lancet, vol. 57, no. 1450, 14 June 1851, p. 657.
95. Ibid., p. 656.
96. Ibid., p. 658.
97. Ibid., p. 659.
98. Anon. (1855a), p. 42.
99. Stieb (1966), p. 105.
100. Rowlinson (1982), p. 66.
101. Burnett (1989).
102. Letheby (1870), p. 273.
103. Anon. (1855a), p. 10.