4 BULLETIN 224, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ORGANIZATION OF METHODS OF OPERATION. 



The reorganization of the methods of operation included the work of the candling 

 room, breaking room, and wash room. 



1. A plan was made to elaborate a system of overinspection in the candling room, 

 to check the work of individual candlers, to recover good eggs thrown out in rejects, 

 and to keep bad eggs which can be detected by the candle from being passed as good. 



2. The organization of the work in the breaking room included rules for the proper 

 manipulation of the egg during breaking, for methods of grading, for changing appa- 

 ratus after breaking a bad egg, for behavior of breaker, and for cleaning the room and 

 its equipment. 



3. A routine was established in the wash room whereby the thorough washing and 

 sterilization of all apparatus coming in contact with food egg was insured. Particular 

 attention was given to the arrangement of the equipment of the room to save time and 

 labor. 



COORDINATION OF FIELD AND LABORATORY WORK. 



From 40 to 50 laboratory samples were taken each week of the various types of eggs 

 occurring throughout the egg-breaking season and of the commercial product during 

 the different stages of its preparation. In some cases large subsamples were taken 

 for later study in bakeries. 



The routine bacteriological examination included the determination of the total 

 number of organisms present, the total number of organisms producing gas in lactose 

 bile, and, in some cases, the isolation and identification of members of the Bacillus 

 coli group; the routine chemical analyses involved the determination of moisture and 

 the amount of ammoniacal nitrogen by the Folin method. For further details of 

 technic see pages 74 to 77 in U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin 51. 



Regular visits of five to six days' duration, beginning on April 22 and ending on 

 September 17, 1912, were made on successive weeks to D, E, and F houses. The 

 observations made in the packing house on the quality of the breaking stock, on the 

 efficiency of the grading in the candling and breaking rooms, and on the sanitary 

 precautions enforced in the breaking room and wash room were correlated from time 

 to time with the laboratory data. This information was then utilized as a basis for 

 new or continued -work on succeeding visits to the three houses. 



PUBLICATION OF RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION. 



The data obtained from the compilation of the descriptions and laboratory findings 

 of the samples prepared from the various types of eggs occurring throughout the egg- 

 breaking season have been published in Bulletin 51 of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture. Upon these data are based the principles of the grading of the eggs 

 used by the breakers and the determination of their fitness or unfitness for human 

 food. 



The details of the practical application of the principles of construction and equip- 

 ment, the observations in the packing house, the organization of candling room, 

 breaking room, and wash room, and the laboratory findings in samples of the com- 

 mercial product are correlated, discussed, and summarized in the following pages of 

 this report. 



The results of the study of samples taken in the field and followed through the 

 bakery, together with a detailed description of equipment, with illustrations, and a 

 discussion of scientific management as applied to the preparation of canned eggs 

 will be given in later publications. 



GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE INVESTIGATION AND THE RESULTS. 



The frozen-egg industry, hardly 15 years old, is permanent, because it has developed 

 as the direct result of an economic need. Many eggs, such as cracked, small, dirty, 

 shrunken, and slightly heated eggs, commercially termed seconds, reach the first 

 concentrating center in a wholesome condition, but if shipped in the shell to a distant 

 consuming center they would markedly decompose and be entirely unfit for food pur- 

 poses. The new industry believed that cracked eggs and seconds could be conserved 

 by freezing out of the shell, and the baker thereby supplied with wholesome eggs at a 

 reasonable price during the whole year. 



As was to be expected, the new industry had to face many problems. The general 

 public had its usual prejudice against any food coming from cold storage. The indus- 

 try was ignorant of the general principles of bacterial cleanliness in the commercial 

 preparation of a perishable foodstuff. Unprincipled persons, thinking they could 

 conceal inferiority of low-grade eggs by freezing them en masse, brought the industry 

 into disrepute. Food officials were groping in the dark in their efforts to protect the 



