A Treatise on Adulteration of Food, and Culinary Poisons, exhibiting the fraudulent sophistications of bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, tea, oil, pickles, and other articles employed in domestic economy. And methods of detecting them

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; [Joseph Mallet, Printer], 1820. Octavo (18 x 11 cm.), xxiv, 360 pages. Stated "Second Edition", published the same year as the first edition. One of the earliest culinary works on the chemistry of cooking and adulteration of food. In A Treatise on Adulterations German chemist Frederick Accum denounced the addition of chemical additives to food. The work marked the beginning of an awareness of the need for food safety oversight. Accum was the first person to tackle the subject and to reach a wide audience through his activities. His book found a wide audience and sold well, but was controversial at the time; it threatened established practices within the food processing industry, earning him enemies among the London food manufacturers. The treatise attempts to expose the 'fraudulent sophistications' of bread, beer, wine, tea, coffee, and more. The work is mainly concerned with adulterations of food, which it deems as morally wrong. Accum names specific companies and businesses he felt were violating the principles of food safety. Beyond food safety, Accum made significant contributions to the fields of gas lighting. ~ Some light foxing, a bit more to title-page, otherwise sound and clean. Rebound in full brown calf. Very good. Scarce; only one copy sold at auction in the last one hundred years. Few in institutional collections. [OCLC locates just three copies; Bitting page 2].