Counterfeiting of food forced emperors impose regulation already in antiquity. Popular and expensive products, such as wine and saffron, were the most prone to cheating. In the Middle Ages, the purity of the wine was monitored everywhere. In Hungary counterfeiting of wine was forbidden, and in 1775 a preliminary examination of the wines to be exported was introduced in order to preserve the reputation of domestic wines by eliminating counterfeiting. The first “analytical methods” for the detection of staining wine with frost and red-weed were described.
In the case of foodstuffs of animal origin the ban on the marketing of tainted meat or meat infected with cisticerca was of great importance in addition to counterfeiting. In order to enforce this, meat watches were employed all over Europe. The butcher and butchers’ guilds controlled the quality of the meat themselves. In the 17–18th centuries there were regulations also in Hungary forbidding the sale of bad meat or fish, the use of carcasses, the import of raw fat from rinderpest ridden areas, etc. Counterfeiting was more widespread in milk: blending with flour, watering, and painting with egg yolk or butter faking were strictly punished.
Food testing was only based on scientific methods at the turn of the 19-20th centuries when there was a boost in the development of meat and milk inspection as well as food analysis and food chemistry. In addition to general chemistry, these disciplines were taught in several institutions including the Hungarian Royal Veterinary Academy (later College). Leo Liebermann, the leader of the Department of Chemistry and Ferenc Hutÿra, who taught meat inspection from 1888 as an independent subject played a prominent role in this progress. In 1901 slaughterhouse practices were introduced by Hutÿra, which were supervised later by Albert Breuer. Ottó Fettick founded the Milk Hygiene Laboratory, while Géza Semsey introduced bacteriological meat inspection.
The picture shows a Höppler viscometer used in food analysis, from the 1960s, from the collection of the Regional Food Chain Laboratory in Debrecen.
Here you can see how (a bit more modern) Höppler viscosimeter works .
Original publication: Orbán Éva: Viszkoziméter. Magyar Állatorvosok Lapja, 2015. 137. 11. 642.
