BULLETIN 
Contribution from the Bureau of Chemistry, Carl L. Alsberg, Chief. 
July 20, 1914. - 
(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 
A BACTERIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL STUDY OF 
COMMERCIAL EGGS IN THE PRODUCING DIS- 
TRICTS OF THE CENTRAL WEST.^ 
Under the direction of M. B. Pennington, Chief, Food Research Laboratory, 
associated with M. K, Jenkins, E. Q. St. John, and W. B. Hicks. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The deterioration of eggs between the time of their production on 
the farm and their arrival at the consmner's table has been discussed 
from different viewjooints in the publications of the Department of 
Agriculture. Among these discussions have been the various causes 
contributing to the loss of freshness, the necessity for lessening the 
number of eggs that become totally unfit for food each year, the 
results of improved methods of handling, and the fixing of respon- 
sibility for the enormous economic and financial loss due to decay. 
The scientific literature on the bacteriology and chemistry of the 
egg of the domestic fowl is surprisingly meager, considering the 
many ages that the egg has served as an unportant article of food. 
The distinction between a good and a bad egg has rested more often 
on individual opinion, colored by prejudice or preference, than upon 
1 This report embodies a study of eggs, the first of a series of reports from the investi- 
gation of frozen and dried eggs, which is being conducted by the Food Research Laboratory 
of the Bureau of Chemistry. It deals with the subject of the quality of the eggs which 
go to the egg-breaking establishments in the egg-producing sections of the Central West. 
It is the basis on which the study of industrial problems and conditions must be founded. 
The second report of the series will deal with the commercial procedures in the packing 
houses, the environment, and methods of work which must be followed if a high-quality 
product is to be produced. Other phases of the investigation will be embodied in reports 
on the general management in the packing houses making for efficiency, and on the treat- 
ment which the output receives in the establishments of the bakers, who are the chief 
users of frozen and dried eggs. For the data submitted we are indebted to M. K. Jenkins, 
who has studied a number of individual eggs, prepared the " commercial " samples, and 
has been of very material assistance in the correlating and presenting of the facts ; to 
E. Q. St. John, who has done the greater part of the bacteriological work ; and to W. B. 
Hicks, who is chiefly responsible for the chemical analyses. The Omaha Food and Drug 
Inspection Laboratory, with its force of chemists, in charge of S. H, Ross, was assigned 
to this investigation with the staff of the Food Research Laboratory for the summers of 
1911 and 1912, and was made the headquarters for the field investigations. 
Note. — This bulletin gives details of an extensive study of commercial eggs and makes 
recommendations for improvements in handling. While the study was made in the Central 
West, the bulletin is equally, of interest to all sections where eggs are produced in com- 
mercial quantities and are sent to egg-breaking or other packing establishments. 
17625°— 14 1 
