FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 269 



TO CONTROL INTER-STATE SHIPMENT OF 

 ADULTERATED EGGS. 



department of Agriculture Gives Notice that Shipments Containing IVIore 



Than Five Per Cent of Bad Eggs Will Be Regarded as Violating 



the Food and Drugs Act — Suggests That Country 



Shippers Candle Eggs Intended for 



Interstate Commerce. 



The United States Department of Agriculture has had 

 under consideration for some time the appHcation of the Federal 

 Food and Drugs Act to the shipment in interstate commerce of 

 eggs in the shell, especially the two classes of eggs known in the 

 trade as ''current receipts" and as "rejects" from candling rooms. 

 ''Current receipts" contain at different seasons of the year vary- 

 ing proportions of eggs which are filthy, decomposed, or putrid. 

 "Rejects" from candling rooms, as a rule, contain large propor- 

 tions of eggs which are filthy, decomposed, or putrid, and very 

 small proportions of eggs suitable for consumption. 



Under the Federal Food and Drugs Act, eggs, in common 

 with other articles of food, are adulterated if they consist whol- 

 ly or in part of a filthy, decomposed, or putrid substance. Sec- 

 tion 2 of the Act prohibits the shipment in interstate commerce 

 of foods which are adulterated and it is plain that this prohibi- 

 tion applies to the shipment in interstate commerce of "current 

 receipts" or of "rejects" from candling rooms or of any other 

 grade of eggs in the shell unless the filthy, decomposed, or putrid 

 eggs have been removed. 



In the opinion of the Department, eggs which contain yolks 

 stuck to the shell, moldy eggs, black spots, mixed rots, addled 

 eggs, black rots, and any other eggs which consist wholly or in 

 part of a filthy, decomposed, or putrid substance, are adulterated. 



The investigations of the Department have shown that it is 

 commercially practicable, by the method of candling, to eliminate 

 from any given shipment most of the eggs of -the kinds which 



