28 BULLETIN 569, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
of our food manufacturers view this question of laboratory control 
from an entirely wrong angle. It is thought that there are some 
manufacturers who use it simply as a means of trying to get their 
goods to “pass inspection.” Instead of seeking to make the best 
product possible the temptation is to make a product just good 
enough to escape adverse action on the part of the food-control 
official who examines it. It is not to be inferred from this state- 
ment that any large number of American manufacturers consciously 
take this attitude, but such a result is always hkely to follow when- 
ever a definite standard for a product is proposed in any line of busi- 
ness. 
The Department of Agriculture desires to emphasize in this bulle- 
tin the supreme importance of certain methods and elementary steps 
in manufacturing as prerequisites in the production of sanitary goods. 
As the analyst for a firm once said, “If the objectionable material 
has been kept out during manufacture, no laboratory test will find 
it present when the finished product is in the bottle.” If proper 
attention has been given to the necessary details of manufacture, 
no laboratory examination should be needed, while, on the other 
hand, if such details have been shghted, no amount of laboratory 
work can correct the evil and make the product one that can be 
classed as sanitary and worthy to be put on the market for con- 
sumption. 
SUMMARY. 
In recent years great changes have taken place in the methods of 
manufacturing tomato products, such as the abandonment of the 
‘ oravity system” and of storage in barrels, and the introduction of 
careful sorting systems. 
Many manufacturers believe their plants are sanitary and do not 
know why their products show impurities. Examination of several 
factories showed defective methods of cleaning the apparatus; in 
other places inadequate sorting methods were found responsible for 
insanitary products. 
The method of washing should be determined by the character of 
the soil in which the tomatoes are grown. 
Too little attention usually is given to sorting, although it is 
probably the most important step in the manufacture of clean, whole- 
some tomato products. Only skilled, responsible workers should be 
intrusted with this task, and, preferably, should be worked in shifts 
of not over three hours. If an apron conveyor is used, the speed 
should be carefully regulated to the capacity of the sorters. Care 
should be taken to have the feed uniform. The sorting room should 
be lhghted from the top and incandescent lighting should be pro- 
vided for dark days. 
