2 BULLETIN 569, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of sanitation or from that of quality, as long as their product can be 

 disposed of at a financial profit. 



Between these two extreme types of manufacturers, one of which 

 is alert and active in seeking constantly to improve conditions, and 

 the other of which is devoid of care or interest in the business beyond 

 the financial profit obtainable, there is a third and much larger class. 

 This class comprises those men who are willing to make improve- 

 ments in keeping with sound, sanitary practice, but whose experience, 

 because of the purely commercial aspects of their business, has given 

 them no opportunity personally to study the sanitary problems of 

 their factories and to apply the information gained in a practical 

 manner. In other words, many manufacturers are deterred from 

 making improvements because of lack of knowledge either of the 

 fundamental reasons for such improvements or of how to proceed. 



The willingness of this class of manufacturers to make improve- 

 ments, however, has rendered possible the great changes that have 

 taken place in recent years in mechanical contrivances for cleaning 

 a«id handling the various products used in the manufacture of foods. 

 This progress is especially well illustrated in the tomato industry. 

 For example, only a few years ago the sorting of tomatoes in the 

 manufacture of ketchup and pulp was very uncommon, while to-day 

 very few manufacturers do not at least profess to observe this step, 

 however ineffectively the process sometimes may be performed. Vari- 

 ous forms of tables and machines have been devised to assist in this 

 important step of manufacture. Many forms of tomato-washing 

 machines found in common use 6 or 7 years ago have become so 

 obsolete that they are being consigned rapidly to the scrap heap as 

 inadequate to meet present-day requirements. Processes, such as the 

 " gravity system " of draining off the watery juice from pulp which 

 was so very largely practiced less than 10 years ago, have been dis- 

 carded by firms that are trying to keep abreast of their fellow manu- 

 facturers in matters of sanitation and quality. The custom of storing 

 in barrels — general a few years ago — has now practically disappeared, 

 except for the poorest grades of products. The barrel has been re- 

 placed by the 5 or 6 gallon tin can. The writer recalls having seen 

 at one plant thousands of barrels in one lot being offered for sale 

 because the firm had no further use for them, as it had adopted the 

 more satisfactory system of storing its product in cans. 



The manufacture of sanitary food products is too broad a problem 

 to be covered in one publication. In the present bulletin the discus- 

 sion will be limited to those conditions which apply particularly to 

 tomato-canning factories. It is proposed to discuss some of the more 

 important points concerning sanitary control of plants of this kind 

 in a rather elementary manner and to avoid technicalities as far as 

 possible. 



