TOMATO PRODUCTS 519 
will still be within permissible limits (25,000,000 per cubic centimeter). 
Thus, for a pulp which must be concentrated one-half the bacterial 
counts should not exceed about half the limits stated above for the 
ketchup itself, ie., it should not be more than 12,500,000 per cubic 
centimeter. The same general rule should also apply to the content of 
molds and of yeasts. 
To insure a sound product, free from decay or any filthy material, 
many factors must be carefully watched, for not infrequently over- 
sight in one particular has been found to have undone the good effects 
of the care exercised in all other ways. Thus it is possible for the 
washing of the fruit to be ideal and the sorting out or removing of 
the decayed portions beyond criticism, and yet a delay in making up 
the pulp into the final product may allow an amount of decomposi- 
tion to occur which offsets the care previously exercised. It has been 
a matter of surprise to some manufacturers to find with what rapidity 
some of these organisms increase. In one factory where this point 
was tested, the bacterial content in a batch of tomato trimming juice 
was found to be about 7,000,000 per cubic centimeter when taken 
from the peeling tables, and after standing at room temperature for 
five hours it had increased to 84,000,000. This was a twelvefold 
increase in a length of time which was less than half the working day 
for some of the factories visited. At the end of five days the number 
had increased to nearly 3,000,000,000 per cubic centimeter. Thus it 
is seen that delay in manufacture is very lable to result disastrously. 
Such facts as these serve to emphasize the great importance of 
absolute cleanliness in every detail about factories of this kind. Dirty 
floors and ccilings and apparatus left with residues of tomato product 
clinging to them are most fruitful sources for the contamination of 
new batches of the product. To clean such an establishment properly 
it is almost imperative that machinery and woodwork be washed by 
means of live steam used lavishly at frequent intervals. To leave 
buckets, tables, conveyors, or any other part of the equipment or floors 
overnight without cleansing them, as was the practice in some fac- 
tories, is reprehensible and tends to contaminate the product and 
lead to spoilage and loss. 
There are some objections to this method. Prescott, Burrage and 
Philbrick (1917) have stated that the method is grossly inadequate. 
They pointed out the following facts which render the method open to 
criticism. 1. Low magnification for examining the unstained mounts. 
2. No account of coccus forms is taken. 3. Personal equation is given 
too much importance. 4. Directions are too indefinite. Bitting and 
