Exactly as printed, 1911
The cry of adulteration goes to great extremes, the desire to appear critical and to be considered a good judge gives rise to much of it, and no sensible dealer will encourage it. Indeed, an honest and intelligent investigation nearly always proves that at least half the accusations are unfounded.
It should also be remembered that there are many food items which are not desirable when absolutely pure--mustard is "adulterated" by nearly every large manufacturer by the addition of flour, because it is too pungent in its natural state; such "adulteration" is not only harmless but may be defended as perfectly proper and justifiable.
Again, many of the statements with regard to adulteration are rendered alarming by the misuse of chemical terms. To tell the average consumer that a table syrup is made of "glucose" is to state a mystery; to say that it is made of "starch treated with hydrochloric or muriatic acid" would cause alarm--yet the final result is a thoroughly wholesome product whose principal constituents are "sugars" identical with, or closely allied to, those into which the sucrose of flowers is converted by bees in the manufacture of honey, and all starchy food is converted by the human stomach in the ordinary process of digestion.
The Grocer's Encyclopedia, 1911. Public domain; transcription unaltered.