From pseudocode to candy arsenic: the top 5 grocery fakes in tsarist Russia

Food adulteration were not yesterday. Enterprising manufacturers have learned to benefit from counterfeit products in the XIX century. Then thundered loud "falsificate" scandals. If small traders limited "inflatable" chickens, the businessmen average hand tinted candy arsenic and produced coffee from clay and gypsum.

We offer unusual rating of entrepreneurial resourcefulness, which is costly for buyers.

"Inflatable" chickens

In tsarist Russia the smitten bird was cheap. Urban and rural fair offered a wide range chickens, geese, ducks at bargain prices. So, the buyer was able without any difficulty to buy the carcass of a fat goose for only a penny. Often at home, the hostess came to cooking poultry, were disappointed. Carcass "melted" eyes.

Author of "Manual books experienced Russian mistress" revealed the secret of the mysterious transformation of slaughtered poultry. Being on the market, she noticed how the sellers manage to give the carcasses of bony geese for the well-fed. They were pumped full of bird in the air!

Unscrupulous sellers put in the back hole of a carcass a straw through which pumped the air. And to the bird "was not blown away", a hole was sutured. Visually scored chickens, ducks, geese became bigger, getting resemblance to a fat bird. The simple trick helped sellers to sell worthless goods at a good price.

Of course, deceived buyers were disappointed. This adulteration is the most simple and harmless. Unlike other imitations, "inflated" the chickens were not endangering the lives of customers.

Deadly candy

Sweet tooth has always been. In tsarist Russia it was too much. Popularity then candies Carlo. Usually multi-colored jelly beans I bought the children. Quality lollipops, which included natural dyes were expensive. Because dishonest manufacturers have learned to tamper with a popular candy.

In the case were common sugar and malosedobno, and sometimes — dangerous dyes. For example, a red jelly beans contained cinnabar is a mineral, which is produced paint and mercury. Blue candy tinted with Prussian blue or iron sulphate. Green candy contained a jar-the Copperhead, which is extracted from arsenic. But the most deadly was the blue pills, containing copper sulphate.

Coffee, tea and non-food additives

Remember the joke about tea with sawdust? Usually say that when you come across taste good tea, implying that he is a fake. It turns out that in tsarist Russia adulteration could contain not only the sawdust, and road dust, clay, dried fireweed. The most desperate sellers tried not only dilute, but also make the contents of the package is heavier.

In the machinations of weight in the course were poisonous lead shavings. Some have tried to watering the tea, despite the high risk of irreversibly damage the product. Often added weak tea and dried. Often fake tea buyers risk to buy fake coffee.

In the XIX century in tsarist Russia was a scandal of fake coffee. It was in Nizhny Novgorod. Traders had managed to produce "coffee beans" of clay and gypsum. The homemade kept in a solution of coffee, which has not changed for several months. Then the seeds were dried, Packed in jars that says "coffee beans".

Greedy traders was detained. They managed to get away. In anticipation of possible trouble, they marked labels barely noticeable text: "the Toy. Not edible". They were able to prove that traded a toy coffee and was released.Most often forged ground coffee. Crooks was added to the bags the normal road dust. It was collected on the nearest road, carefully screened and added in a bag of ground coffee. The share of "non-additive" depended on the greed of a merchant. Bag of ground coffee can contain as 30 and 70 percent of dust. The profit was enormous. Only traders of dairy products could boast of a large income.

Natural milk

About the benefits of dairy products has long been known. Today we pay attention to the date of production, fat content, composition. In the old days the buyer chose the products at your own risk. In each market tsarist Russia cries Milkmen, pavlekovic buyers of the counters. Each promised fresh, delicious milk. Is it really?

Milkmen knew a lot of ways to "improve" the product to sell it more expensive. For example, they increased the fat content with lime, liquid cream was adjusted to the desired condition chalk. More shenanigans were done with oil. Vintage "Recipes for success" subjected to a shock of the most discerning buyers.

Butter

It is considered that high-quality butter is made from cream. Today, manufacturers vengeance experimenting, inventing new products: butter, margarine, spread. In tsarist Russia there was no such classification. Because the butter tops the ranking for the grocery counterfeits. Dodgy merchants knew a lot of ways to give the oil presentable.Few modern Housewives know that fatness causes the saturation of the color. In the old days, this parameter was improved by using the onion skins, carrot juice. Brazen crooks added melted beef fat, and the most cunning brains. More oil could be carpenter's glue, starch, and soap.

Arriving home, the hapless buyers were found repugnant taste or strange smell. In anger, they went back to the market to protect "consumer rights" cuffs. The scale of the trial depended on the temperament of the deceived the buyer. Although this did not prevent cunning dealers to continue to sell counterfeit goods.

Of course, today very few people come to mind "cheat" a duck or a chicken. The development of the chemical, the food industry does not stand still. The old tricks have been replaced with new recipes "natural" products, many of which are crammed with obscure supplements. And yet, the idea of adulteration of food products was born a few centuries ago.