PKEPAEATI02ST OF FEOZEN AND DKIED EGGS. 47 



At this time there were about six tables in use, each having a capacity of eight girls. 

 Inasmuch as the successful operation of this room required constant detailed super- 

 vision, one girl at each table was made responsible for the work of the other seven, 

 as in 1911. The foreman gave his orders to the table chief rather than to each 

 individual girl. With such an organization it was possible for the management to 

 inaugurate changes and to make rules for routine and be assured that they would be 

 enforced. 



The product. — The management was preparing frozen whites, frozen tanners' egg, 

 dried yolks, and a dried mixture compounded from one part yolk and two parts whole 

 egg. The latter product was termed in this investigation "mixed egg." 



Two series of experiments showed, as illustrated in Table F-I (Appendix, p. 80), 

 that the liquid egg was not contaminated as it passed from the cans on the breaking 

 tables through various containers to the drying room. 



The mixed egg sampled for these observations was broken from cracked eggs. The 

 bacterial content varied from 800,000 to 1,300,000 per gram in the different samples. 

 The lowest number of B. coli observed was 1,000 and the highest 100,000 per gram. 



The percentage of ammoniacal nitrogen found in two samples of mixed egg was 

 0.0017 on the wet basis. In five samples of whole egg used in the preparation of this 

 product, the amount of this constituent varied from 0.0014 to 0.0017 per cent. These 

 nitrogen determinations prove, therefore, that the classes of spring eggs used in the 

 preparation of mixed egg were, commercially speaking, fresh. 



Two samples of desiccated product prepared from the two lots of mixed egg, 

 taken in connection with the study of outside contamination, contained 650,000 

 bacteria per gram in one case and 1,000,000 in the other. These counts, when 

 divided by 3 to make them comparable with liquid egg, indicate that bacteria were 

 killed during desiccation. The moisture content averaged 11.85 per cent in these two 

 samples taken directly from the- belts and 4.32 per cent after secondary drying. The 

 bacteria in the two products were not materially affected by the latter process. 



Two samples of desiccated yolk, as given in Table F-II, visit 1 (Appendix, p. 81), 

 showed the widely divergent counts of 71,000 and 17,000,000 per gram. The latter 

 count was probably caused by mu ltiplica tion of bacteria during desiccation because the 

 highest number discovered in 19 samples of liquid-food egg was not over 1,300,000 per 

 gram. Later samples also justify this supposition. 



Samples of white, yolk and tanners' egg obtained from cracked eggs by four girls 

 using the same receiving cans gave the results shown in Table 21, visit 1, which 

 indicate that the eggs were of good quality; that they were graded carefully and that 

 the technic of breaking was clean. Since the white and yolk were obtained 

 from only two cases of eggs, the counts can not be taken as an indication of the bac- 

 terial content of the general output. This statement is verified by the differences in 

 the number of bacteria in various lots of breaking-stock eggs opened under the same 

 conditions as the samples just discussed. For example, counts of 600, 500,000, and 

 600,000 were obtained from three different cases of checks, and 300 and 600,000 from 

 two lots of seconds. 



Visit No. 2 (May 20 to 24). 



The breaking stock consisted of one-half small and dirty eggs and the other half 

 checks. All receipts were now being candled, consequently the breaking stock was 

 practically free from deteriorated eggs with the exception of those which could be 

 detected only when out of the shell. 



After the new box sterilizer was installed for steaming utensils from the drying 

 room, there was practically no contamination of the product from improperly cleansed 

 utensils. The bacteria in the liquid-food eggs were, therefore, due to the organisms 

 occurring originally in the shell eggs and to contamination during breaking. The 

 problem henceforth was to determine to what extent the bacteria from these two 

 sources could be eliminated. 



Since the previous visit the management had changed the system of grading. Eggs 

 showing no signs of deterioration were used in a first-grade product in the form of 

 either whole eggs, whites, or yolks. Soft eggs, not separable into white and yolk, 

 were used in the whole eggs and graded as firsts. A typical soft egg is also pictured 

 in Plate XIV. The commercial mixture was made from yolks and whole eggs. A 

 second-grade food article was prepared from drip and incipient forms of sour, moldy, 

 green-white eggs and all eggs of a doubtful quality. The third grade, or tanners' egg, 

 was made of the rejects from the candling and breaking room, minus eggs with a 

 strongly objectionable odor, such as musty eggs. Since good eggs have to be discarded 

 when a bad egg is broken in a cup with them, a large number of good eggs were also 

 present in the tanners' stock. 



