PURE AND IMPURE FOOD. 



" What a Man Eats He Is." 

 Edited by C. F. Langworthy, Ph. D. 

 Author of 'On Citraconic, Itaconig. and Mesaconic Acids," "Fish as Food," etc. 



TRANSPORTING FRESH FRUITS. 



"It is important to note," says H. E. 

 Williams, of the United States Weather 

 Bureau, in a discussion of cold storage in 

 relation to food products, "that in shipping 

 fruits, etc., many of the precautions taken 

 in packing to keep out the cold will also 

 keep in the heat, and there is really more 

 danger in some instances from heating by 

 process of decomposition than from cold. 

 All fresh fruit tends to generate heat by 

 this process. A carload of fresh fruit ap- 

 proaching ripeness, closed up tight in an 

 uniced refrigerator car, with a temperature 

 above 50 degrees, will in 24 hours generate 

 heat enough to injure it, and in 2 or 3 days 

 to as thoroughly cook it as if it had been 

 subjected to steam heat. Suitable refriger- 

 ator transportation must, therefore, provide 

 for the heat generated within as well as the 

 outside cold. The perfection of refrigera- 

 tion for fruit is not necessarily a low, but 

 a uniform, temperature. A temperature of 

 40 degrees to 50 degrees will keep fruit 20 

 or 30 days, if carefully handled. Straw- 

 berries have been transported from Florida 

 to Chicago, transferred to cold storage 

 rooms, and remained in perfect condition 

 for 4 weeks after being picked. 



"Fruit intended for immediate loading 

 in cars should be gathered in the coolest 

 hours of the day, and that which has been 

 subjected to a high temperature before 

 being shipped should be cooled immediately 

 after being loaded. Ordinary refrigeration 

 will not cool" a load of hot fruit within 24 

 hours, and during that time it will deterio- 

 rate much in quality. It should be cooled 

 in 4 or 5 hours in order to prevent fer- 

 mentation. It is stated that the more in- 

 telligent of the large shippers of fruit in 

 the South have about concluded that it is 

 impracticable with any car now in use to 

 load fruit, especially peaches and canta- 

 loupes, direct from the orchard into the 

 car with assurance of safety. In deference 

 to this opinion one Southern railroad has 

 announced its intention of establishing, at 

 the largest shipping points along its lines, 

 cooling rooms for the purpose of putting 

 the fruit in satisfactory condition for trans- 

 portation before being loaded. 



"Shipments of tropical fruits in ordinary 

 freight cars can not 'be made safely when 

 the temperature is below 30 degrees, except 

 in cases where the distance is so short as 

 not to expose them for a longer period 

 than 12 hours, and even then they must be 

 carefully packed in straw or hay. The 



3' 5 



hardier Northern fruits and vegetables can 

 be safely shipped in a temperature of 

 about 25 degrees, but the same protective 

 measures must be employed as in the case 

 of tropical fruits when lower temperatures 

 prevail. Long exposure to temperature 

 of 20 degrees is considered dangerous to 

 their safety. Foods preserved in cans or 

 glass should not be shipped any distance 

 when the temperature is below the freez- 

 ing point. 



"Oranges shipped from Florida to points 

 as far North as Minnesota are started in 

 ventilator cars, which are changed at Nash- 

 ville to air-tight refrigerator cars, the ven- 

 tilators of which are kept open, provided 

 the temperature remains above 32 degrees, 

 until arrival at St. Louis, from which point 

 the ventilators are closed and the cars 

 made air-tight. Lemons and oranges are 

 packed in crates. Each layer of crates in 

 the car is covered by and rests on straw, 

 usually bulkheaded back from the door and 

 car full. Oranges loaded in ventilated or 

 common cars should be transferred to re- 

 frigerator cars when the temperature 

 reaches 10 degrees above zero ; in transit, 

 with a falling temperature the ventilators 

 should be closed when the thermometer 

 reaches 20 degrees, and with a rising tem- 

 perature the ventilators should be opened 

 when _ it reaches 28 degrees. For lemons 

 the minimum is 35 degrees for opening and 

 closing the ventilators and for bananas 45 

 -degrees for opening or dosing. Some 

 shippers say that ventilators on cars con- 

 taining bananas, lemons, and other delicate 

 fruits should be closed at a temperature 

 of 40 degrees. 



"In shipping carloads of bananas a man 

 is usually sent in charge to open and close 

 the ventilators. Bananas should be put in 

 a paper bag and a heavy canvas bag, and 

 then covered with salt hay, unless put in 

 automatic heaters, when the fruit is packed 

 only in salt hay. Bananas are particularly 

 susceptible to injury by cold, and require 

 great care. If exposed to temperatures as 

 low as 45 they almost invariably chill, turn 

 black, and fail to ripen. Cars containing 

 them are sometimes, in extreme cold weath- 

 er, protected by throwing a stream of water 

 on them, which, freezing, forms a complete 

 coating of ice. The method adopted by 

 some firms of shipping this fruit in winter 

 is to heat refrigerator cars to about 90 

 degrees by oil stoves, remove the stoves 

 and load the fruit quickly, put the stoves 

 back and. heat up to 85 degrees or 90 



