SANITARY CONTROL OF TOMATO-CANNING FACTORIES. 3 



CONDITIONS OBSERVED IN SEVERAL TOMATO-CANNING 



FACTORIES. 



Criteria of cleanliness are involved in the question of what con- 

 stitutes a sanitary plant or product. Under the Food and Drugs Act, 

 June 30, 1906, the Federal Government has no power to enforce sani- 

 tary rules except as it may prohibit the entrance into interstate com- 

 merce of products which are filthy, decomposed, or putrid. 1 Direct 

 control over the factories themselves is wholly within the jurisdiction 

 of the several States ; the Federal Government can serve only in an 

 advisory capacity. Various States have sanitary regulations, but in 

 formulating them general terms must be used. Hence, in applying 

 these regulations to specific cases considerable difference of opinion 

 may appear because of the variation in training or experience of 

 those making the inspection. It is easier to direct that " products 

 shall be made in a sanitary manner " than to explain in concrete 

 terms what is meant by these words. Therefore, it seems appropriate 

 to tell of the conditions found in a few factories and what was done 

 to correct them. These examples are cited not because they represent 

 the average condition of tomato-canning factories throughout the 

 country but because they illustrate conditions in a rather large class 

 of establishments where the superintendents are sincere in consider- 

 ing their plants satisfactory when, as a matter of fact, their factories 

 may be seriously deficient in some particulars. 



At hearings held in connection with the enforcement of the Federal 

 Food and Drugs Act it has occurred repeatedly that the manufac- 

 turers concerned have claimed that their products were made under 

 absolutely sanitary conditions. Obviously, it is rarely possible to 

 verify such statements by inspection, principally because the season 

 when the goods were packed has already passed and the factory is 

 more or less dismantled. Usually it is of little value to visit a plant 

 in the out-of-season periods of the year if a study of sanitation under 

 working conditions is desired. Such claims on the part of the manu- 

 facturers usually may be considered as candid and honest expressions 

 of opinion, but field work has shown that lack of experience in mat- 

 ters of sanitation may produce very erroneous conclusions. 



Factory No. 1. 



About the middle of a recent tomato-packing season the following 

 letter from a manufacturer of tomato products was received by the 

 Bureau of Chemistry : 



We wish to call your personal attention to a condition that is existing in the 

 tomato-ketchup business as regards our own plant and, as we believe, the 

 same condition exists in many other plants. 



1 For the views of various Federal courts upon what constitutes a filthy, decomposed, 

 or putrid product see Notices of Judgment 544, 649, 825, 873, 1693, 3372, 3400, and 

 4036 ; also National Canners Asso. Bui. 38, Jan. 20, 1917, Washington, D. C. 



