Analyzing The Baking Powders

" Royal," only, found free from lime, alum, and phosphatic acid, and absolutely pure. Under the direction of the New York State Board of Health, eighty-four different kinds of baking powders, embracing all the brands that could be found for sale in the State, were submitted to examination and analysis by Prof. C. F. Chaxdler, a member of the State Board and President of the New York City Board of Health, assisted by Prof. Edward G. Love, the wellknown United States Government chemist. The official report shows that a large number of the powders examined were found to contain alum or lime ; many of them to such an extent as to render them seriously objectionable for use in the preparation of human food. Alum was found in twenty-nine samples. This drug is employed in baking powders to cheapen their cost. The presence of lime is attributed to the impure cream of tartar of commerce used in their manufacture. Such cream of tartar was also analyzed and found to contain lime and other impurities, in sorne samples to the extent of 93 per cent of their entire weight. All the baking powders of the market, with the single exception of "Royal " (not including the alum and phosphate powders, which were long since discarded as unsafe or inefficiënt by prudent housekeepers), are made from the impure cream of tartar of commerce, and consequently contain lime to a corresponding extent. The only baking powder yet found by chemical analysis to be entirely free from lime and absolutely pure is the " Royal." This perfect purity results from the exclusive use of cream of tartar specially refined and prepared by patent processes, which totally remove the tartrate of lime and other impurities. The cost of this chemically pure cream of tartar is much greater than any other, and it is used in no baking powder but the " Royal." Prof. Love, who made the analyses of baking powders for the New York State Board of Health, as well as for the Government, says of the purity and wholesomeness of " Royal" : "I have tested a package of 'Royal Baking Powder' which I purchased in the open market, and find it composed of pure and wholesome ingredients. It is a cream of tartar powder of a high degree of merit, and does not contain either alum or phosphates or any injurious substances. , " E. G. LOVE, Ph.D."