42 STUDIES OF POULTRY. 



of an odor of putrefaction, yet it does come within a few hours and 

 then increases with rapidity. 



While discussing the boxing of chilled poultry (p. 21) the state- 

 ment was made that the most recent advance in this respect lay in 

 the growing use of a carton for a single chicken, or, at most, a pair. 

 Experimentation in this line was begun more than three years ago 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture, using a paraffined 

 carton such as is commonly seen in the cracker trade, as well as a 

 fairly tight tin box. It has been commonly held by the industry that 

 fresh air is needed in the packages of frozen poultry if long keeping 

 is desired ; hence boxes have been far from tight. Experimentation, 

 on the other hand, has shown that flavor, appearance, texture, and 

 all-around quality have been enhanced by storage in a tin container, 

 or even in a pasteboard carton, from which air is excluded. A 

 number of these experiments have been made, 5 using chickens dressed 

 in various ways. The analyses of the flesh and a record of the gen- 

 eral condition of the birds so packed, as compared with the usual 

 box pack, are now in course of compilation. 



Such analyses bacterial, chemical, and histological as were re- 

 viewed in the first chapter of this paper have been of great service 

 in studying the comparative advantages of various methods of prepa- 

 ration of poultry for either the market or the freezer. By means of 

 them it has become possible to state whether a bird entering the 

 freezer in visually good condition is really so in the sense of main- 

 taining quality for the maximum commercial keeping time. Since 

 the object of the freezer is to preserve the flesh as nearly unchanged 

 as possible, such methods must be resorted to for the recognition of 

 differences which are minute when freezing is applied, more apparent 

 when it ends, but striking before marketing is accomplished and the 

 bird eaten. On the basis of such work improvement in present 

 methods must follow and new practices will be devised. A large part 

 of the poultry now lost as foodstuff by decomposition will be saved 

 when the reasons for its spoiling shall have been made plain to both 

 packer and receiver. And last, but not least, such work, brought to 

 the attention of the public, must tend to do away with such prejudices 

 as those which cause the consumer to demand scalded rather than 

 dry-picked chickens and often to sweepingly condemn all cold-stored 

 supplies regardless of quality or the impossibility of furnishing fresh 

 produce when it is demanded out of season. 



a This has been adopted for commercial use by certain progressive packers. 

 6 Unpublished studies of Food Research Laboratory, Bureau of Chemistry, 

 U. S. Dept. Agr. 

 [Cir. 64] 



o 



