106 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. I>oc. 



ciled Oil the crate of rejected eggs "not to be used for food pur- 

 poses", but when, as is so frequently done, they are, sold either 

 directly to baking establishments or to niiddloinen who make a 

 practice of preparing them for the baking trade, their use undoubt- 

 edly constitutes a distinct menance to the health of the community, 

 and as the complex proteid and lecithin constituents of the egg 

 naturally develop ptomaines and similar poisonous substances upon 

 undergoing putrefactive changes, and as such poisonous ptomaines 

 are not destroyed by the ordinary baking temperature, there is little 

 doubt that many obscure cases of food poisoning are attributable 

 to the use of these decomposing eggs by bakers. 



It is almost incredible that such filthy and unwholesome products 

 as putrefying eggs should be used by baking establisments, but the 

 financial gain is so great that a certain class of bakers (which for- 

 tunately is rapidly decreasing) use these eggs in their products. In 

 Philadelphia, upon several occasions, eggs which were in advanced 

 stages of decomposition have been traced to and siezed in the 

 baking establishments where their use is customary. 



The condition in which they are handled and sold is in bulk, the 

 whites and yolkes being mixed together by beating up the entire 

 mass in large cans. The separation of the eggs from the shells is 

 effected by hand, the operator picking out the ''spot" and allowing 

 the remainder of the egg to fall into the can, where it is sub- 

 sequently mixed with the rest of the mass. To the contents of the 

 can formaldehyde or borax is sometimes added, to check any further 

 decomposition, and condensed milk is often added to give a certain 

 creamy, homogeneous appearance which is possessed by normal egg 

 contents. 



The justification, if there is any, for continuing in this trade, is 

 probabl}^ ignorance on the part of the middlemen or egg openers, as 

 illustiatc d by the argument recently advanced by one of these men, 

 to the effect that a "spot" egg is like a partly rotten apple, and that 

 after the removal of the rotten portion the remainder of the egg is 

 wholesome. Even if the egg contents thus obtained were whole- 

 some, which they decidedly are not, the unsanitary conditions under 

 which the eggs are opened and handled, usually in dark, filthy 

 cellars, by persons who have absolutely no regard for hygienic 

 details, would be sufficient to condemn them for food purposes. 



As might readily be inferred by knowledge of the material and 

 the conditions under which it is prepared, the egg contents thus 

 collected are not at all uniform either in appearance or in flavor. A 

 slightly rotten flavor and odor is said to bake out entirely in using 

 egg contents in which hydrogen sulphide or hydrogen ])hosidiide 

 have developed, while a distinctly musty flavor is noticeable in the 

 baked x>i*oduct and such egg contents are rejected by the bakers. 

 Among other varieties of abnormal flavors and odoi's may be men- 

 tioned the following, which are self-explanatory: Kerosene, mouldy, 

 sour, herring, camphor oil and onion. 



In large bakeries the necessity for comy>etent judging of the 

 probabh^ effect upon the baked ])roducts has led to the employment 

 of expert tasters, who receive salaries sometimes as high as twenty 

 or thirty dollai's a week, and upon whom devolves the duty of 

 tasting, either in the raw state or in a trial cake, each lot of opened 

 eggs submitted, in order to ])revent the use of eggs which would 

 communicate a flavor to the finished product, and thus prevent their 



