PREPARATION OP FROZEN AND DRIED EGGS. 



61 



Some experiments were conducted during this week to check the cleanliness of the 

 routine of the breaking room. For this investigation four samples of eggs in the shell 

 were procured — one of clean seconds, one of cracked eggs, and two of dirty eggs. The 

 samples, consisting of 12 dozen eggs each, were divided equally into two portions. 

 One was broken commercially in the packing house, and the other was opened asepti- 

 cally in the laboratory. These comparative experiments, listed in Table 27, not only 

 indicate the superior quality of the breaking stock at this season, but also show how 

 closely the aseptic methods of the laboratory can be approximated under commercial 

 conditions. 



Table 27. — Comparative samples of eggs opened commercially and aseptically (D house, 



1912). 

 [Samples collected June 19, 1912.] 



Sam- 

 ple. 

 No. 



Description and 

 size of sample. 



Bacteria per 

 gram on plain 

 agar incu- 

 bated at — 



Gas- 

 pro- 

 ducing 

 bacteria 



per 



gram in 



lactose 



bile. 



Liquefying 

 organisms 

 per gram. 



Ammoniacal 



nitrogen 



(Folin 



method). 



Mois- 

 ture. 



Num- 

 ber 

 of 

 dis- 

 cards. 



Method of 

 opening. 



20° C. 



37° C. 



Wet 

 basis. 



Dry 



basis. 





4572 



Visit No. 8. 



Cracked, 6 dozen 

 do 



140,000 

 200 

 200 



600 







400 



200 



13, 000 



150 



75,000 

 350 

 100 



300 







400 



50 



3,000 









 

 









 10 

 

 1,000 

 





Perct. 



0. 0019 

 .0018 

 .0019 



.0016 



.0017 

 .0017 

 .0017 

 .0017 

 .0017 



Per ct. 



0. 0071 



.0065 



.0068 



.0059 



.0061 



.0065 

 .0061 

 .0063 

 .0061 



Per ct. 

 73.22 

 72.09 

 72.03 



73.00 



72.13 



73.85 

 72.29 

 72.87 

 72.02 



2 

 1 

 







2 

 

 

 





4573 







4585 



Leakers of No. 



4573, 1 £ dozen. 

 Clean seconds, 6 



dozen. 

 do 







4578 

 4579 



in 1,000 



in 1,000 

 in 1,000 

 in 1,000 

 2,000 

 in 1,000 



Do. 



Aseptic. 

 Commercial. 



Aseptic. 



4576 

 4577 



Dirty, 6 dozen... 

 do 



4581 



do 



4582 



do 



Aseptic. 



Visit No. 4 (July 9 to 12). 



During the interval between the third and fourth visits the weather had been warm, 

 with the result that the percentage of seconds in receipts increased and many of the 

 fertile eggs contained hatch spots or blood rings. A typical heated egg is pictured in 

 Plate II, U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 51. On account of ineffi- 

 cient candling many blood rings found their way to the breaking room, thereby increas- 

 ing the difficulties of grading as well as necessitating frequent changes of apparatus. 



This poor work led one to suspect that the candlers might be just as careless in 

 throwing away edible eggs as they were in not eliminating the bad eggs. That this 

 suspicion was well founded is shown by the fact that when two cases of discards from 

 the candling room were broken one contained 9.7 per cent food eggs and the other 

 the astonishingly high percentage of 29.4 per cent. This was too great a loss to be 

 passed unnoticed, therefore the candling foreman was instructed to recandle daily 

 the eggs discarded by the different candlers. This work was a part of the candling 

 room routine for the remainder of the season. 



Up to the present time the girls had worked practically without supervision and 

 according to the instructions given them at the beginning of the season. Now, in 

 order to train new girls and on account of the increased difficulty in grading, one 

 of the cleanest and most experienced egg breakers was given charge of the room. 

 Her duties were as follows: 



1. Enforce instructions. to breakers. 



2. Supervise washing and sterilizing of apparatus and supply of same to breaking 

 room. 



3. If a breaker is dirty, disobedient, unable to grade, or inefficient, consult with the 

 management regarding her discharge. 



4. If candling is not satisfactory, report to the management. 



5. Decide on doubtful eggs. 



6. Supervise cleaning of breaking room, toilet room, hallway, and wash room. 

 Samples taken during this visit and also those taken by an employee of the plant 



during the investigator's absence showed practically no change in the bacterial count 

 or the amount of ammoniacal nitrogen of the co mm ercial product. Previous work on 

 hatch-spot eggs proved them to be nearly sterile when opened aseptically and to con- 

 tain low quantities of ammoniacal nitrogen. • Therefore one would not expect that the 

 presence of a large percentage of these eggs in the breaking stock would materially 

 affect either its bacterial content or its chemical composition. 



