Swill Milk Scandal, 19th Century

Swill Milk Scandal, 19th Century

Entitled: "Food adulteration and inspection: Swill milk after Thomas Nast." Visual motif: Death dealing out contaminated milk to the poor in the street. The Swill milk scandal was a major adulterated food scandal in New York in the 1850s. The New York Times reported an estimate that 8,000 infants died one year from swill milk. The term swill milk comes from the fact that cows were fed swill which was residual mash from nearby distilleries. The milk was further whitened with plaster of Paris, thickened with starch, eggs and hued with molasses. After the extraction of alcohol from the macerated grain, the residual mash still contains nutrients, and therefore it was an economical advantage to keep cows stabled near distilleries and feed them with swill.

Album / NLM/Science Source

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2700 x 4124 px | 31.9 MB

22.9 x 34.9 cm | 9.0 x 13.7 in (300 dpi)