EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 245 



of the olive packing industry have shown that certain manufacturers 

 use faulty methods in the fermentation and processing of olives which 

 would favor a very miscellaneous microflora not at all constant in type. 



Canned strimj beans: Practically the whole pack of string beans put 

 up by a local housewife spoiled due to underprocessing, a heavy white 

 sediment being formed. Knowing the conditions under which the beans 

 were grown, a search for B. hofulinns and flat sour bacteria was made in- 

 asmuch as a someAvhat offensive odor was evident on opening them and 

 the H-ion concentration of the juice was high. B. hotiiMnus was not 

 found, but a very interesting apparently anaerobic thermophile was iso- 

 lated from them which may have caused the increase in acid. A study is 

 being made of this organism, the results of which will be published later. 

 Neither the bean juice nor the thermophile culture was toxic to guinea 

 pigs. 



Canned squash: Several quart mason jars of squash which had started 

 to leak were carefully paraffined by the housewife evidently in an effort 

 to stop the leak. The jar examined contained considerable gas. Cul- 

 tures from this jar showed a pure culture of a facultative anaerobe pro- 

 ducing an orange yellow pigment. These bacteria were gram positive, 

 frequently pointed at one end. Further studies have not been made of 

 these organisms. 



Canned peaches: A very small sample of jellied peach juice was brought 

 in to determine what organisms were present. A mold had been grow- 

 ing on this particular can and evidently by some phenomenon of its 

 growth had produced a jellying of the juice as the juice in all other cans 

 of peaches put up at the same time was liquid. The taste of the juice 

 was not altered. On the media employed no growth was obtained. How- 

 ever, this phenomenon will bear further investigation. 



Piclded peaclics: A quart mason jar of moldy pickled peaches was 

 brought in for determination of the molds present and the method of 

 their entrance. It was not surprising that the peaches spoiled as no rub- 

 ber had been emploj'ed for sealing the jar. It was not considered neces- 

 saiy to determine the types of molds present. 



Canned tomatoes: A quart mason jar of tomatoes was brought in for 

 analysis. The tomatoes seemed to be very much disintegrated and soon 

 developed a swell and leak, later becoming moldy. No cultural tests 

 were made. 



But few cans of spoiled foods have been examined this year due to a 

 lack of time. However, several points illustrated by these samples may 

 well be brought out, even though they have been mentioned more than 

 once in the past few years. First, a housewife need not expect food to 

 keep which has been underprocessed instead of being heated for the 

 length of time advised by the latest Government directions. Of course 

 these directions which have been worked out on experimental packs, in 

 isolated cases may fail even if followed to the letter, due to the i)resence 

 of very resistant bacterial spores. I believe that the time period for 

 ])rocessing certain types of food may well be lengthened without causing 

 ;i serious deterioration in quality and tiius avoid the spoihige of occa- 

 sional wliole ])acks. ('are should be taken not only that rubbers are 

 placed on cans, but tiiat tlie rubber is new and of good quality. When 

 the can is sealed, the housewife should listen for a moment to note 



