The other ingredients of commercial glucose, the maltose and dextrin,
have of course the same food value as the dextrose, since they are made
over into dextrose in the process of digestion. Whether the glucose
syrup is fit to eat depends, like anything else, on how it is made. If,
as was formerly sometimes the case, sulfuric acid was used to effect the
conversion of the starch or sulfurous acid to bleach the glucose and
these acids were not altogether eliminated, the product might be
unwholesome or worse. Some years ago in England there was a mysterious
epidemic of arsenical poisoning among beer drinkers. On tracing it back
it was found that the beer had been made from glucose which had been
made from sulfuric acid which had been made from sulfur which had been
made from a batch of iron pyrites which contained a little arsenic. The
replacement of sulfuric acid by hydrochloric has done away with that
danger and the glucose now produced is pure.
The old recipe for home-made candy called for the addition of a little
vinegar to the sugar syrup to prevent "graining.
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