r)()8 RKruKT OK UFFICK OF KXPKUIMKNT STATIONS. 



oncr(]fy per man per day. Tii f'oiii])arison witli this standard tho four 

 studies with attendants, the average for which is given al)ove, would 

 indicate that tiieir diet was generous. 



FOOD WASTE. 



From the statistics of food purchased (hiring the year ending ju.st 

 l)efore those studies were begun it was caU'uIated that the suppl}' was 

 sullicitMit to furnish tho j)opulation for the yeai- an average of 127 grams 

 of lU'otein, 1 TiJ grams of fat, HIT grams of ('arhoh3'dratos, and 4,240 

 eah)rios of energy p(M' man per day. Simihir figures were not obtained 

 for the food purchased during the time of the studies, l)ut from an 

 examination of (he accounts it seems fair to assume that the supply' 

 would diller but litth' from that of the preceding 3'ear in actual nutri- 

 tive value. Assuming that there would 1)0 no dillerence in this 

 respect, and that the average food consumption found in the dietary 

 studies represents the condition for the total population, it would 

 appear that between the purchase of the supplies and the serving of 

 the food there is a loss of at least a fourth of the total amount. Part 

 of this loss is of course due to shrinkage and deterioration in the stor- 

 ing and handling of the materials, but the larger part of it occurs in 

 other ways. From the data collected in the dietary studies it was 

 found that on an average the patients "wasted" 18 per cent of the 

 total amount served to tliem and tho attendants 22 per cent. This rep- 

 resents only the part of the food that was rejected at the plates and 

 does not include the excess of food ])rou<iht into the dining room over 

 the amounts used to feed the individuals at the table. The latter 

 made a small but appreciable proportion of the food sent from the 

 kitchen to the dining room, and, being conmionly too small to be 

 returned to the kitchen and utilized in "made over" dishes, it usuall}^ 

 went with the wastes from the plates, so that the total waste from the 

 dining ro(mis would 1)0 even larger than the figures given. These 

 results are considerably larger than have been observed elsewhere. 

 In the studies in the New York hospitals for the insane the average 

 table and kitchen waste was found to be 12 per cent. 



To avoid misunderstanding, it ma}' be explained that the term 

 "waste" is here applied to material that is actually edible but is not 

 utilized, such as bread, the flesh of meat, etc. Inedilde material, such 

 as bones, eggshells, skins, and seeds of vegetables, are considered as 

 refuse, not as waste, and do not appear in these estimates. Of course, 

 the waste is not an entire loss, because it is utilized to feed swine for 

 pork. It is designated waste in the sense that it is not utilized as food 

 for patients or attendants. 



To one who has not looked into the matter, these figures for waste 

 would seem surprising. It is quite probable, however, that in insti- 

 tutions where no special effort is made to prevent it, even so large a 



