PREPARATION OF FROZEN AND DRIED EGGS. 25 



There were a sufficient number of knives ana sherbet cups to permit each soiled 

 piece to be sterilized for fifteen minutes before being again put into service. The 

 apparatus was considered soiled as soon as it had come into contact with an egg 

 that had to be discarded. Current breaking stock furnished the eggs. The results of 

 the laboratory examination of the experimentally prepared product are shown in 

 Part II of Table 13. In order to comprehend their true significance, the bacterial 

 findings obtained must be compared with those found in commercial sample No. 455. 

 The eggs used in these two series were not only from the same lot but from the same 

 cases, the experimental samples coming from one side and the commercial samples 

 being taken from the other, in the routine fashion of the house. Their similarity is 

 further confirmed by the chemical analyses, which are practically identical. The 

 number of bacteria in the experimental samples are uniformly less than 1,000 per 

 gram, and the organisms of the coli group are greatly reduced in number, not exceeding 

 100 per gram, while the corresponding figures for the commercial sample are 4,300,000 

 bacteria and 100,000 B. coli. 



Part III of Table 13 gives the results obtained when the equipment was washed 

 and held in hot water at 160° F. before use. When contaminated by a bad egg it was 

 not used again until it had been washed and sterilized. The finger tips were kept dry 

 as before. The number of bacteria per gram is, practically speaking, reduced to a 

 negligible quantity, and the presumptive coli organisms are also practically excluded. 

 To emphasize what such cleanliness means the counts should be compared with the 

 commercial samples Nos. 459-461. Here again the bacteria per gram ran over 4,000,000 

 in the case of the yolks, and the B. coli ran as high as 100,000. These eggs, as before, 

 were from the opposite half of the cases furnishing the experimental samples. Such 

 a demonstration, confirmed by many others, showed that the best of eggs, if handled 

 in dirty utensils, would give a product containing many bacteria. 



CONDITIONS OBSERVED IN C HOUSE IN 1911. 



The equipment used in C house in the preparation of the egg for freezing was also 

 of interest, because it varied in character for almost every breaker. The fancies of 

 the individual girls were more apt to determine the kind of utensils used than any 

 experienced judgment concerning fitness for the work to be done. Sometimes 20 

 girls were employed, but there was no discipline. The forewoman was the social 

 associate of the girls, and many were the interruptions while town doings were dis- 

 cuesed. The whole atmosphere of the breaking room was one of easy-going self 

 satisfaction. 



The Breaking Room and Equipment. 



The egg-breaking room was long and narrow. Two windows on the outer side wall 

 were screened, as was also the door. The floor was of wood for rather more than half 

 its length, the balance being of concrete and slightly lower in level. 



A long table made of wood and covered with zinc stretched from end to end of the 

 room. At this table, facing the light, the girls sat. About 18 inches above the table 

 and running along the wall and across the windows was a galvanized-iron gutter about 

 5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches deep. Over this were water faucets so placed 

 that they could be reached without the girls leaving their seats, and in this stream of 

 cold water the girls rinsed fingers and utensils. About half way down the room, 

 breaking the table line, was a wooden trough supplied with hot and cold water and 

 used for the general cleaning and washing. 



At the two ends of the room were large galvanized-iron cans, supplied with stirrers 

 and creamery faucets and called churns. In these the eggs were mixed before being 

 put into their final carriers. 



The girls were using heavy walled glass tumblers, tin cups, agateware cups, sherbet 

 glasses, and ordinary china teacups, depending entirely upon the preference of the 

 worker and the receptacle available. Each girl had a small tray — tin, agate, or 

 black japanned ware — on which she placed the egg receptacles. She also had a 

 group of agateware buckets, holding about 3 quarts each, into which she emptied 

 her smaller receivers. These buckets were dumped into the churns, or, in the case 

 of egg white, directly into 30-pound pails, in which they were frozen. When the 

 study of C house was made it was putting out egg white, egg yolk (sugared and un- 

 sugared), and a first, second, and third grade of whole egg. The third grade was known 

 as "tanners'," and was not for food purposes. 



