UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 775 
HP V: 
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Contribution from the Bureau of Chemistry 
CARL L. ALSBERG, Chief 
Washington, D. C. 
June 3, 1919 
COMMERCIAL PRESERVATION OF EGGS BY COLD 
STORAGE. 1 
By M. K. Jenkins, Assistant Bacteriologist. Prepared under the direction of M. E. 
Pennington, Chief, Food Research Laboratory. 
CONTENTS. 
Some aspects of the cold storage business 
Purpose of investigation 
General plan of investigation 
Results of investigation: 
Effect of condition of shell upon preserva- 
tion 
Relation of quality to preservation 
Commercial grading for storage 
Relation of month of storage to number of 
bad eggs in cold storage firsts and 
seconds 
Condition of commercial packages as 
stored 
16 I 
Results of investigation— Continued. 
Analysis of bad eggs in commercial firsts 
and seconds after storing 18 
Carefully prepared packages 20 
Shrinkage of eggs and absorption of 
moisture by case and fillers 23 
Physical and chemical changes in eggs 
during storage 28 
Absorption of foreign flavors during 
storage 33 
Summary 34 
SOME ASPECTS OF THE COLD STORAGE BUSINESS. 
The preservation of eggs by means of cold renders one of the most 
important of the perishable foods available at all times. According 
to Holmes, 2 about 50 per cent of the egg crop is produced during 
the months of March, April, May, and June, and 86 per cent of the 
eggs held in storage are stored in March, April, and May. During 
these cool months the eggs are the freshest and most desirable for 
storing. According to a statement issued by the Bureau of Markets, 
April 15, 1918, 478 warehouses, which report holdings of eggs in 
cold storage, are fairly well distributed over the United States. 
The March 11, 1918, summary report, issued by the Bureau of 
Markets, shows that a total of 6,595,850 30-dozen cases, valued at 
$70,487,212, were stored in 396 houses during the season of 1917-18. 
These figures, although lower than the actual amounts, due, as men- 
tioned in the reports, to the failure of a few houses to forward state- 
1 The work covered in this bulletin was done in the Bureau of Chemistry. In the future, the market- 
ing phases of the Department's work on poultry and eggs will be conducted by the Bureau of Markets, 
under a cooperative arrangement with the Bureau of Chemistry. 
2 U. S. Dept. Agr., Statistics Bui. 93. 
J°— 19— Bull. 775 1 
