PREPARATION OP FROZEN AND DRIED EGGS. S9 



hour and minute when the supply of steam should be cut off. This mechanism ena- 

 bled the operator to know definitely that each portion of apparatus was sterilized for 

 25 minutes. 



The egg supply consisted of current receipts as well as checks, dirties, and seconds. 



The general candling of the receipts was fair, but the recandling of the discards was 

 not accurate. The latter duty had been assigned to one of the regular candlers 

 because the foreman was now checking the work of individuals candling to select 

 good eggs to go to the breaking room. He recandled pails of eggs selected at random, 

 and when he found an undue number of deteriorated eggs he notified the original 

 candler. Under this system of overinspection the girls developed more care in 

 grading. 



Quantitative determinations given in Table E-IV (Appendix), under visit No. 5, 

 showed that samples of the regular breaking stock contained 46.9 per cent more bac- 

 teria and 10 per cent more ammoniacal nitrogen than did similar samples obtained 

 on the previous visit. Similarly, Table E-III shows that the desiccated product 

 contained more organisms than did the samples taken on the preceding visit. The 

 larger amount of bacteria in the liquid egg probably accounts for this increase. The 

 increase in the bacterial content was no doubt due to the hot weather which pre- 

 vailed during the first half of July. 



The data on the commercial product, as recorded in Table E-IV (Appendix), pre- 

 pared from current receipts, showed the same amount of loosely bound nitrogen 

 as did the eggs discussed before, but the number of bacteria was about one-third less. 

 The latter difference may, perhaps, be explained by fewer infected eggs in current 

 receipts as compared with the seconds, dirty, and cracked eggs of the regular 

 breaking stock. 



Visit No. 6 (August 5 to 9). 



The egg supply consisted of the same classes of eggs as on the previous visit, but there 

 were fewer current receipts. 



The general candling was good, and the recandling of the discards was improved. 

 The breakers were doing good work under the direction of the new forewoman. In 

 fact, the management of the breaking room was better than it had been at any time 

 during the season. 



As the firm was putting up an order of dried yolk, about one-third of the breaking 

 force was separating eggs into white and yolk. The separation was effected by a trough 

 separator of the gravity type. This device was effective for spring eggs, but was not 

 very efficient for %h.e soft eggs which occurred at this period. The girls, conse- 

 quently, were continuously removing broken yolk from the apparatus, and with the 

 best of manipulation they could not prevent portions of yolk getting into the white. 



Bacteriological and chemical examinations of whole egg before and after drying 

 proved the breaking stock to be of practically the same quality as on the preceding 

 visit. The weather was cooler during the latter half than it was during the first part 

 of July, consequently there was no greater deterioration in the egg supply. 



Table E-VI (Appendix p. 76) gives the results of 13 samples of white and yolk sep- 

 arated by the device already described. The maximum number of bacteria found 

 was 1,800,000; the minimum 1,000. It is of interest in this connection to note that 

 the counts in every case are lower than those in synchronous samples of whole egg 

 taken from the large storage tanks. It is probable that the soft eggs which enter the 

 latter product offer an explanation of its higher bacterial content. 



Samples were taken of the product broken each day during the interval between 

 visits No. 5 and No. 6. During this interval the management purchased 1,153 cases 

 of firsts which had been deluged with water while a fire was being extinguished in 

 the building in which they were stored. A chemical examination of the eggs proved 

 them to be comparatively fresh and to contain no more water than is ordinarily 

 found in breaking stock. The eggs were broken in three days' time, but the last 

 portion was not finished until four days after receipt because a Sunday intervened 

 between the last two days. The forewoman stated that the grading was simple on 

 the first and second days, but was very perplexing on the last day, because many of 

 the eggs had become musty. The mustiness of these eggs pervaded the atmosphere 

 of the breaking room to such an extent that it was almost impossible to detect any 

 other odor. The changes observed in these eggs indicate that the wetting of shells 

 plays a part in the production of musty eggs. 



It is interesting to observe the increase in the number of bacteria in the product 

 broken each day. The count on the first day was 1,600,000; on the second, 2,400,000; 

 and on the fourth, 5,100,000 per gram. The B. coli numbered 10,000 in the liquid 

 egg broken on Friday and Saturday and 100,000 in the product obtained on Monday. 

 The amount of ammoniacal nitrogen found in the eggs was practically the same on 



