502 ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The roliitivo rate of deterioration in fertile and unfertile e^fj^s has 

 been studied in the laboratory in more than a hundred .samples, using 

 the candle as a means of ijradiiig. 



Marketing ok I'oultby and Eggs in New York. 



A member of the staff of the Food Research Laboratory has been 

 almost constantly in New York City during the past year to receive 

 experimental shi])ments of poultry and eggs and to stud}' transpor- 

 tation and the whole complex nuirketing system in New York City 

 as applied to perishable products. 



During the year 8 cold-storage wareliouses, 33 commission houses, 

 and 15 retailers have been in close touch with the work, in most cases 

 cooperating with this laboratory. The New York City commis- 

 sioner of docks and other public officials in connection with the 

 establishment of a new municipal market have called for informa- 

 tion concerning the handling of perishables, that the losses to the 

 people in both quality and quantity may be reduced as far as pos- 

 sible. 



Investigation of Frozen and Drif:d Eggs in Omaha. 



The investigation at the Omaha food and drug inspection labora- 

 tory, begun in June, 1911, and continued until early in September, 

 was outlined in the report of this laboratory for 1911. From July 

 until September active work was conducted in six plants which were 

 preparing frozen or dried eggs. The prevailing conditions, as well 

 as the various grades of eggs which went 'into the commercial prod- 

 uct, were studied carefully. The eggs used by the industry were 

 taken to the laboratory and there handled as the industry handled 

 them; the improved methods worked out in the laboratory were 

 transfeiTcd to the commercial breaking rooms and applied to the 

 eggs used there. The results showed that good eggs, unless handled 

 properly, would not give a bacterially clean product and that many 

 eggs which would not be good at the market center, generally a six- 

 day haul away, were good food if broken and frozen or dried immedi- 

 ately. Such studies also served to locate the sources of contamina- 

 tion, and, having located them, the problem shifted to the study of 

 means for their elimination. The practical application of the prin- 

 ciples of bacteriological cleanliness to connnercial procedures must 

 be the basis for the handling of eggs out of the shell, just as it must 

 be in dairying for the handling of milk out of the cow. The fun- 

 damentals gathered from the w(M'k of the summer of 1911 have been 

 published as Bureau of Chemistry Circular No. 98, Practical Sug- 

 gestions for the Preparation of Frozen and Dried Eggs. During 

 the winter some work was done cooperatively with a bakery which 

 used the frozen eggs prepared by one of the plants which had been 

 studied during the previous season, thus following the product to 

 the consumer. 



The egg season of 1912 opened with three egg-breaking plants 

 ecjuippeu with facilities for handling eggs in accordance with the 

 knowledge gained during 1911 and in May a fourth plant was added. 

 A member of the staff of the food research laboratory has spent the 

 summer in these newly equipped houses, watching methods, experi- 

 menting, noting the variation of the eggs with the season and the 



