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



of our food manufacturers view this question of laboratory control 

 from an entirely wrong angle. It is thought that there are some 

 manufacturers who use it simply as a means of trying to get their 

 goods to " pass inspection." Instead of seeking to make the best 

 product possible the temptation is to make a product just good 

 enough to escape adverse action on the part of the food-control 

 official who examines it. It is not to be inferred from this state- 

 ment that any large number of American manufacturers consciously 

 take this attitude, but such a result is always likely to follow when- 

 ever a definite standard for a product is proposed in any line of busi- 

 ness. 



The Department of Agriculture desires to emphasize in this bulle- 

 tin the supreme importance of certain methods and elementary steps 

 in manufacturing as prerequisites in the production of sanitary goods. 

 As the analyst for a firm once said, "If the objectionable material 

 has been kept out during manufacture, no laboratory test will find 

 it present when the finished product is in the bottle." If proper 

 attention has been given to the necessary details of manufacture, 

 no laboratory examination should be needed, while, on the other 

 hand, if such details have been slighted, no amount of laboratory 

 work can correct the evil and make the product one that can be 

 classed as sanitary and worthy to be put on the market for con- 

 sumption. 



SUMMARY. 



In recent years great changes have taken place in the methods of 

 manufacturing tomato products, such as the abandonment of the 

 *■' gravity system " and of storage in barrels, and the introduction of 

 careful sorting systems. 



Many manufacturers believe their plants are sanitary and do not 

 know why their products show impurities. Examination of several 

 factories showed defective methods of cleaning the apparatus; in 

 other places inadequate sorting methods were found responsible for 

 insanitary products. 



The method of washing should be determined by the character of 

 the soil in which the tomatoes are grown. 



Too little attention usually is given to sorting, although it is 

 probably the most important step in the manufacture of clean, whole- 

 some tomato products. Only skilled, responsible workers should be 

 intrusted with this task, and, preferably, should be worked in shifts 

 of not over three hours. If an apron conveyor is used, the speed 

 should be carefully regulated to the capacity of the sorters. Care 

 should be taken to have the feed uniform. The sorting room should 

 be lighted from the top and incandescent lighting should be pro- 

 vided for dark days. 



