VEGETABLE AND FRUIT DEHYDRATION 181 



The main items of drying expense, without regard to order of im- 

 portance, are : Labor, equipment charges, fuel and power costs, and 

 other expenses, including indirect and overhead costs. 



Packaging and Warehousing Costs 



For purposes of discussion, several operations are included in this 

 group, as follows: (1) Final inspection; (2) air desiccation; (3) 

 grinding; (4) packaging, filling, replacing air with inert gas, sealing, 

 labeling, boxing or crating, and (5) warehousing or car loading. 



Final inspection might logically be included in a separate group. 

 It is, however, a relatively minor operation and for that reason is 

 included here insead of in an independent classification. The number 

 of inspectors varies according to the quality of the raw material, care 

 used in preparation, and quality of drying, as well as the require- 

 ments of the purchase specifications or grade standards. 



The main items of packaging expense, not necessarily in order of 

 importance are: Containers, labor, utilities (including air desicca- 

 tion), inert gas, equipment charges, and other expenses, including 

 indirect and overhead costs. 



Indirect and Overhead Costs 



Indirect and overhead costs are included together, since there is ap- 

 parently little to be gained in attempting to separate them. Costs 

 that cannot be directly and wholly charged to any of the groups men- 

 tioned previously are included in this group as follows : 



Administrative salaries and expenses, interest on investment and 

 taxes, depreciation of plant and equipment, rental of building or 

 equipment not chargeable directly, insurance on plant (labor insurance 

 is a cost of labor), factory clerical salaries and expenses, laboratory 

 salaries and expenses, equipment and building repairs and replace- 

 ments not chargeable directly, fire extinguishing apparatus and other 

 safety precautions, laundry, clean-up labor and janitorial services, 

 vacation labor, first-aid supplies and expenses, transportation of help, 

 miscellaneous supplies and expenses. 



In distributing these various expenses to the different steps of oper- 

 ation each item of overhead or indirect cost theoretically should be 

 analyzed and prorated separately on a basis equitable for that partic- 

 ular expense. In actual practice, it is not always practicable to do 

 this. It is advisable, however, to handle as many items as possible in 

 this manner. For those items not handled separately, a grouping is 

 satisfactory. Laundry, vacation labor, transportation of help, and 

 other similar charges can be equitably distributed on a labor basis. 

 Depreciation, insurance and taxes, maintenance and repairs, etc., are 

 more logically spread on an equipment investment or other similar 

 basis. 



Individual treatment of each item is also preferable in distributing 

 indirect and overhead expenses among the various products handled. 

 This method of distribution should be used wherever practical. 

 Charges not so handled can be grouped and distributed on a basis 

 equitable for the group, such as one or more of the following : Value 

 of finished product, time dehydrator is used on each product, quantity 

 of material produced, direct labor cost, and raw-material cost. 



