TOMATO KETCHUP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. 7 



of the care exercised in all other ways. Thus it is possible for the 

 washing of the fruit to be ideal and the sorting out or removing of 

 the decayed portions beyond criticism, and yet a delay in making up 

 the 1 pulp into the final product may allow an amount of decomposi- 

 tion to occur which offsets the care previously exercised. It has been 

 a matter of surprise to some manufacturers to find with what rapid- 

 ity some of these organisms increase. In one factory where this point 

 was tested, the bacterial content in a batch of tomato trimming juice 

 was found to be about 7,000,000 per cubic centimeter when taken 

 from the peeling tables, and after standing at room temperature for 

 five hours it had increased to 84,000,000. This was a twelvefold in- 

 crease in a length of time which was less than half the working day 

 for some of the factories visited. At the end of five days the number 

 had increased to nearly 3,000,000,000 per cubic centimeter. Thus it 

 is seen that delay in manufacture is very liable to result disastrously. 

 Such facts as these serve to emphasize the great importance of 

 absolute cleanliness in every detail about factories of this kind. Dirty 

 floors and ceilings and apparatus left with residues of tomato product 

 clinging to them are most fruitful sources for the contamination of 

 new batches of the product. To clean such an establishment properly 

 it is almost imperative that machinery and woodwork be washed by 

 means of live steam used lavishly at frequent intervals. To leave 

 buckets, tables, conveyors, or any other part of the equipment or floors 

 overnight without cleansing them, as was the practice in some fac- 

 tories, is reprehensible and tends to contaminate the product and 

 lead to spoilage and loss. 



GENERAL CONDITION OF THE FRUIT. 



Certain points concerning the general character of the fruit re- 

 ceived and accepted at different factories have an intimate bearing on 

 this investigation. 



In some places the fruit is demanded in such a dead ripe condition, 

 because of the brighter color imparted to the final product, that there 

 is usually a large amount broken and crushed during transportation 

 and more liability of the development of decay-producing organisms. 

 Such fruit requires more labor in sorting and a larger proportion of 

 waste must result. Because of the extra labor involved in properly 

 removing the decayed portions it is frequently only partially accom- 

 plished, and the final effect on the quality of the product is to sacri- 

 fice cleanliness to color. There is, of course, no objection to the color 

 itself, but only to the danger attending the use of such ripe fruit that 

 a larger amount is in a more or less advanced state of decay and its 

 removal is only partially accomplished. 



