DR. WILEYS' VIEW.

Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Chief Bureau of Chemistry, prepared a paper for the meeting of the Pennsylvania State Millers' Association which was held in Lancaster, Pa., on Sept. 25, 26 and 27. It was read on that occasion and is herewith published.

SOME PROBLEMS IN THE MILLING INDUSTRY.

There are many important problems of a purely technical character which millers are constantly called upon to consider. These problems relate to improvements in machinery and processes, methods of cleaning and preparing the grains, and methods of packing and transporting the products. These are matters which do not in any way concern the pure food law, nor do they present any points of a chemical or scientific character.

There are other problems, however, in which the chemist and the official in charge of the enforcement of food laws has an interest almost equal to that of the miller.

The object of the present paper is to state some of these problems in the hope that collaboration may be secured with the millers in solving them. In the first place it is not expected that the chemist or the official in charge of the enforcement of the law should be skilled in the art of milling; in the second place it is not expected that the miller should be a skilled chemist, or skilled in the art of enforcing a law. Hence, the necessity of sympathetic collaboration in order that all interests may be properly protected. I wish to state briefly some of the problems which should be considered.

BRANDING AND MISBRANDING.

First, the problem relating to labeling: The food law requires that food products entering into interstate commerce should not be misbranded in any respect, or carry any false or misleading statement, design or device. This is a very broad inhibition. It is evident that it is not nécessary that a label be positively false in order to come within the scope of the law, but if it is misleading or deceptive in any way it becomes subject to the law. Milling products, therefore, should be correctly branded in regard to the kind of raw materials used; if spring wheat is used the product is properly a spring wheat flour; if winter or fall wheat is used the product is properly fall or winter wheat flour; if the two be mixed together, the product is properly a blend of winter wheat and fall wheat flour. If a product be milled wholly within one state, the product must be regarded as being from that state, although the raw material might have come from without the state.

LOCATION OF MILL.

For instance, the term "Minneapolis Flour" would be applied to any flour produced in Minneapolis, but the term "Minnesota Wheat Flour" could only be applied to the product of wheat grown in Minnesota, no difference where it might be milled. Again, the phrase "whole wheat flour" or "entire wheat flour" is not a proper one if any of the articles of the wheat are separated, hence it is evident that such a term could only be applied to what is generally known as unbolted flour. Attention should also be directed to the use of the term "gluten flour." This term should not be applied to an ordinary flour rich in gluten, as is often

the case, but only to a flour from which the principal part of the starch has been removed in some way. The term "rye flour" cannot be properly applied to any product except that derived wholly from rye, and the same is true of buckwheat flour. There can be no possible objection to mixing different flours together provided the label plainly distinguishes the character of the mixture and the proportions of each of its ingredients; but a mixture of wheat flour and rye flour could not be called rye flour, and a mixture of rye flour and buckwheat flour could not be properly called

buckwheat flour.

These are illustrations of some of the principles of correct labeling as to state where the cereal is produced, where the product is made, and the character of the product which is sold. If millers inadvertently have been branding their products otherwise than as described above they should hasten to correct these faults in order that their products may be suitable for interstate commerce. Products which are made and sold wholly within a state, it is well understood, do not come within the provisions of the national law, but are subject solely to the state laws.

BLEACHING FLOUR.

Another problem of great interest at the present time is that of bleaching flour at the time of its preparation. This is a matter on which I am not yet able to formulate an opinion except that it is always safe to abstain from mixing any chemical of any kind with a food product. The manufacturer who adds chemicals to foods must run the risk of offending the law providing the resulting products are misbranded, damage or inferiority concealed, or contain a substance which may render them injurious to health. I believe the process of bleaching at the present time is almost exclusively that of introducing into the flour the oxides of nitrogen, in other words, a radical of nitric acid. Nitric acid is an extremely strong acid commonly known by the term aquafortis. It is highly corrosive and destructive. It is claimed in the case of bleaching with oxides of nitrogen that the quantity introduced is minute and, therefore, harmless. It has never appeared quite plain to me that a harmful substance can be used in minute quantities without danger. The injury which is produced will doubtless, in most cases, be proportionate to the quantity used, so that a very small quantity of the material will produce a very slight injury and an infinitesimal amount of the material will produce an infinitesimal injury.

THE COLOR OF FLOUR.

Without going into the question of the injurious effects produced save to sound this note of warning, attention should be called to another feature, namely, that of the possibility of deception. Unfortunately many people are of the opinion that the value of the flour is measured solely by color, whereas in point of fact the color is a mere accident and not a quality. The public taste for white flour and white bread is evidently a cultivated taste, and cultivated along a line which is not altogether advisable. The amber, dark, or black breads are known to be extremely nutritious and are much relished by many nations, especially those of Europe. In this country a bread made from Indian corn, which is yellow in color, is very much prized by many consumers, but bread made from