PREPARATION OF FROZEN AND DRIED EGGS. 53 



conditions observed in d house during two consecutive years. 



Season of 1911. 

 construction, equipment, and routine. 



D house installed during the winter of 1910-11 a breaking room, which at this time 

 was the only one of its kind in the country. (PI. VIII, fig. 2.) The room was 22 

 by 28 feet. It was insulated with cork on the two outer walls and shavings on the 

 two inner walls. The five windows in the room were insulated with five glasses and 

 four air spaces, the outer pane being of prism glass. The entire room was of concrete 

 construction, the floor being covered with nonabsorbent paint, the walls and ceilings 

 with white enamel. The temperature varied from 60° F. to 65° F. The door of the 

 room opened into a passageway which was divided off at one end for a wash room. 

 The sink was equipped with steam table as well as hot and cold water, and wire 

 racks for draining apparatus. 



The breaking tables (PI. VIII, fig. 2) consisted of gas-pipe frames with slate tops. 

 Resting firmly on these were galvanized iron stands, also with slate tops, holding the 

 small breaking trays at a proper height for convenient work. (PI. X, fig. 2.) The 

 breaking pans were tin, about 1 foot square and about 3 inches deep. A groove at 

 the top of the pan held a tin-bound piece of one-half-inch mesh wire cloth. Across 

 this wire cloth, and separated by two tin uprights about 3 inches high, was stretched 

 tightly another piece of heavy tin, thereby dividing the top of the tray into two halves. 

 On this piece of tin, which was sharp, the eggs were broken. Sherbet cups were used 

 to receive the eggs. The whites and yolks were separated by the shell method. 



The liquid egg was collected in cream pails holding 30 pounds. These, when filled, 

 were emptied into a galvanized churn with a capacity of 200 pounds and mixed by 

 hand with a perforated metal dasher. The mixture was drawn off by means of a 

 creamery faucet into 25-pound tin cans and immediately transferred to the freezer. 

 Only one grade of food egg, and no tanners', was prepared. 



At first all cans and utensils were washed and steamed for one minute or less on the 

 steam table whenever changed. Near the end of the season a creamery sterilizer was 

 provided, then all utensils were steamed for 15 minutes at 212° F. The girls wore 

 uniforms and caps. Paper towels were used for drying fingers. All the eggs were 

 chilled before candling in a refrigerated room. The supply of eggs from the candling 

 to the breaking room was practically continuous, hence there was no time for dete- 

 rioration between candling and breaking. About 15 filled buckets stood overnight 

 to supply the breakers early in the morning. No egg cases were taken into this room, 

 but galvanized buckets holding 12 dozen eggs each were substituted, because they 

 were far more cleanly. The whites and yolks were separated by the shell method. 



The force consisted of one foreman, five to ten breaking girls, one or two women to 

 wash apparatus, one messenger boy, and two candlers. Approximately 26,000 

 pounds of frozen eggs were prepared in a week. 



COMPARISON OP COMMERCIAL AND EXPERIMENTAL SAMPLES. 



Table D-I (Appendix, p. 94) gives the laboratory results on 38 samples of white, 

 yolk, and mixed egg prepared under the conditions just described. Twenty-four 

 of the number, or 63.2 per cent, had a bacterial count below 1,000,000 per gram and 

 the rest were under 5,000,000. The quantitative tests for B. coli never showed over 

 100,000 per gram, and in many cases the number was considerably lower. The small 

 amount of ammoniacal nitrogen found in the different samples showed that the eggs 

 entering the product were of good quality. The laboratory findings confirmed the 

 impressions gained by the observation of the routine in use, namely, that the man- 

 agement was handling the egg according to the best methods known at that time. 



Table 23 gives five series of experiments showing the difference in bacterial con- 

 tamination of eggs_ broken commercially from clean seconds as compared with the 

 product obtained in the same manner from dirty eggs. All of the eggs used were of 

 about the same freshness as shown by the uniform quantity of loosely bound nitro- 

 gen in the different samples. Variation in quality, therefore, could have no influ- 

 ence in these tests on the bacterial counts. The results in four out of five cases 

 show that the organisms were present in much larger numbers in the product from 

 the dirty eggs, although all the counts were fairly low. The B. coli in the majority 

 of the tests were also more plentiful in the liquid from the dirty eggs. 



