NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF SUBMARINE PERSONNEL 



321 



an aircraft carrier, 380 pounds of gristle 

 and fat were discarded from 1,350 pounds 

 of "boiling" beef; the waste represented 28 

 percent of the raw material (45). Cam- 

 paigns sponsored by government and indus- 

 try for civiUan conservation of fat seems 

 misdirected in the face of such large scale 

 losses. 



In the submarine, where space is so cri- 

 tical, the removal of bone and excess fat 

 from the meat would decrease the space this 

 food occupied by approximately 25 percent. 

 This is a conservative figure. Besides sav- 

 ing space, cutting the meat into suitable 

 sizes before it is stored would insure the 

 use of that food in its most desirable form. 

 Leiter's report (37) indicated that when sec- 

 tions of meat were too large for the available 

 space in the submarine, the loading crew 

 did an impromptu butchering job with an 

 axe. An unskilled person under such cir- 

 cumstances could do much to decrease the 

 value of even the best grade of meat. 



The primary argument against cutting up 

 the sides or quarters of meat before it is 

 actually ready for roasting are: (1) it would 

 shorten the time the meat could be safely 

 stored, and (2) the meat would tend to 

 dry out more rapidly. Recent develop- 

 ments in food technology offer means of 

 overcoming both difficulties. The meat 

 could be cut up under sanitary conditions 

 where the microbial flora were kept to a 

 minimimi by means of steri-lamps. When 

 the possibility of contamination is thus re- 

 duced and means taken to prevent future 

 ingress of bacteria, the first objection can 

 be disposed of. Subsequent contamination 

 can ahnost be eliminated by such a wrapper 

 as aluminum foil. In addition to its advan- 

 tages from the sanitary standpoint, the 

 aluminum foil would be very effective in 

 decreasing the dehydration of the meat. 

 Each cut should be adequately labelled, so 

 that it could be easily loaded, stored, and 

 located on the submarine. This work could 

 be done by a group of men especially trained 

 for the job of trimming, boning, cutting. 



and wrapping the meat, and the cook's train- 

 ing course could be reduced by that much. 



All foods should be packaged in such a 

 way that they occupy a minimum of space. 

 One of the most obvious savings in this 

 respect is the substitution of cans 

 with square sides for the present round ones. 

 Much of the canned goods used by the 

 services is packed in No. 10 cans. Simple 

 calculations show that if square-sided cans 

 were used, eight cans of the same capacity 

 could be put in the present carton that 

 holds only six cans. In addition to this, 

 there would be the added saving of the 

 cartons which would ordinarily be required 

 for the extra cans. 



Research in conjunction with the Food 

 Container Institute of the Quartermaster 

 Corps at Chicago should be expanded in this 

 field. Specifications might be readily avail- 

 able for the t3^es of containers and cartons 

 that had been found to stand up longest 

 under difficult transportation conditions. 



Central Loading Program 



It is readily apparent that the proper 

 storage of even uniform containers requires 

 a certain amount of experience and skill. 

 Where the available space is as limited and 

 irregular in shape as that on a submarine, 

 the skill and experience of the loaders be- 

 comes much more critical in determining 

 the amount and the condition of the food 

 toward the end of a cruise. If a small group 

 of men at each of the submarine bases were 

 trained for this particular duty, the food 

 could be loaded economically from the point 

 of view of both time and space. There is a 

 reasonable possibihty that a trained crew 

 could get considerably more food into the 

 same space than men with no previous ex- 

 perience in such matters. It is also hkely 

 that the material stored by such a crew 

 would be in better condition at the end of a 

 cruise. Similar groups could be attached to 

 submarine tenders and would be responsible 

 for loading all food away from the base. 



Leiter's report indicated that for the 



