6 BULLETIN 908, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The quantity of oil in the can is a very important factor in con- 

 tributing to the food value of the sardine when it is eaten. A well- 

 packed can containing an adequate amount of edible oil yields a 

 large amount of food fuel, and ; in the form of the fish flesh, a good 

 quantity of tissue-building food. 



PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION. 



A few years before undertaking the investigation herein reported, 

 the Bureau of Chemistry, of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, made several studies of sardines shipped in interstate commerce 

 from Maine, in connection with the enforcement of the Federal Food 

 and Drugs Act. The bureau had already acquired some experience in 

 such work, through its study of sardines offered for importation into 

 the United States. These investigations of Maine sardines showed 

 that a certain portion of the pack was of unnecessarily inferior quality. 

 Indeed, in some cases it constituted a flagrant violation of the law. 

 It seemed probable that very often the low-quality goods were pro- 

 duced through faulty methods of handling and packing, due to careless- 

 ness, rather than to a deliberate effort to defraud the consumer. This 

 condition seemed to offer an opportunity to render the packer a real 

 service in assisting him to raise the standard of his output by em- 

 ploying better methods throughout the canning process, and at the 

 same time to benefit the community as a whole by improving an 

 important element of the country's food supply. 



Accordingly, in 1913, a laboratory was established at Eastport, 

 Me., where, during that season, as well as those of 1914 and 1916, 

 the representatives of the Department of Agriculture, ably assisted 

 by the packers, studied the entire process of packing sardines. The 

 success of this undertaking is already evident in the steady better- 

 ment of factory conditions, in the adoption of methods making for 

 efficient operation, and in the increased care shown in handling the 

 pack from the time the fish leave the water until the can is sent out 

 from the factory. The majority of the canners have banded them- 

 selves together in an association for the betterment of the industry, 

 exercising its own sanitary supervision over the canning processes 

 in the plants of its members. It is hoped that the industry will be 

 helped by the information contained in this bulletin, which gives 

 a report of the investigations on the canning of sardines on the coast 

 of Maine, with suggestions for improving faulty methods, for the 

 elimination of all unnecessary waste, and for the economical utiliza- 

 tion of the necessary wastes. 



METHODS EMPLOYED IN PACKING SARDINES. 



The various steps in the production of canned sardines may be 

 classified as follows: (a) Catching the fish; (b) transportation of the 

 fish from the fishing grounds to the cannery; (c) pickling and salting; 



