PREPARATION OF FROZEN AND DRIED EGGS. 47 
At this time there were about six tables in use, each having a capacity of eight girls. 
Inasmuch as the successful operation of this room required constant detailed super- 
vision, one girl at each table was made responsible for the work of the other seven, 
as in 1911. The foreman gave his orders to the table chief rather than to each 
individual girl. With such an organization it was possible for the management to 
pccurate changes and to make rules for routine and be assured that they would be 
enforced. 
The product—The management was preparing frozen whites, frozen tanners’ egg, 
dried yolks, and a dried mixture compounded from one part yolk and two parts whole 
ege. The latter product was termed in this investigation ‘“‘mixed egg.”’ 
Two series of experiments showed, as ulustrated in Table F-I (Appendix, p. 80), 
that the liquid egg was not contaminated as it passed from the cans on the breaking 
tables through various containers to the drying room. 
The mixed egg sarapled for these observations was broken from cracked eggs. The 
bacterial content varied from 800,000 to 1,300,000 per gram in the different samples. 
The lowest number of B. coli observed was 1,000 and the highest 100,000 per gram. 
The percentage of ammoniacal nitrogen found in two samples of mixed egg was 
0.0017 on the wet basis. In five samples of whole egg used in the preparation of this 
product, the amount of this constituent varied from 0.0014 to 0.0017 per cent. These 
nitrogen determinations prove, therefore, that the classes of spring eggs used in the 
preparation of mixed egg were, commercially speaking, fresh. 
wo samples of desiccated product prepared from the two lots of mixed egg, 
taken in connection with the study of outside contamination, contained 650,000 
bacteria per gram in one case and 1,000,000 in the other. These counts, when 
divided by 3 to make them comparable with liquid egg, indicate that bacteria were 
killed during desiccation. The moisture content averaged 11.85 per cent in these two 
samples taken directly from the belts and 4.32 per cent after secondary drying. The 
bacteria in the two products were not materially affected by the latter process. 
Two samples of desiccated yolk, as given in Table F-II, visit 1 (Appendix, p. 81), 
showed the widely divergent counts of 71,000 and 17,000,000 per gram. The latter 
count was probably caused by multiplication of bacteria during desiccation because the 
highest number discovered in 19 samples of liquid-food egg was not over 1,300,000 per 
gram. Later samples also justify this supposition. 
Samples of white, yolk and tanners’ egg obtained from cracked eggs by four girls 
using the same receiving cans gave the results shown in Table 21, visit 1, which 
indicate that the eggs were of good quality; that they were graded carefully and that 
the technic of breaking was clean. Since the white and yolk were obtained 
from only two cases of eggs, the counts can not be taken as an indication of the bac- 
terial content of the general output. This statement is verified by the differences in 
the number of bacteria in various lots of breaking-stock eggs opened under the same 
conditions as the samples just discussed. For example, counts of 600, 500,000, and 
600,000 were obtained from three different cases of checks, and 300 and 600,000 from 
two lots of seconds. 
Visit No. 2 (May 20 to 24). 
The breaking stock consisted of one-half small and dirty eggs and the other half 
checks. All receipts were now being candled, consequently the breaking stock was 
practically free from deteriorated eggs with the exception of those which could be 
detected only when out of the shell. 
After the new box sterilizer was installed for steaming utensils from the drying 
room, there was practically no contamination of the product from improperly cleansed 
utensils. The bacteria in the liquid-food eggs were, therefore, due to the organisms 
occurring Lapel in the shell eggs and to contamination during breaking. The 
problem henceforth was to determine to what extent the bacteria from these two 
sources could be eliminated. 
Since the previous visit the management had changed the system of grading. Eggs 
showing no signs of deterioration were used in a first-grade product in the form of 
either whole eggs, whites, or yolks. Soft eggs, not separable into white and yolk 
were used in the whole eggs and graded as firsts. A typical soft egg is also pictured 
in Plate XIV. The commercial mixture was made from yolks and whole eggs. A 
_ second-grade food article was prepared from drip and incipient forms of sour, moldy, 
green-white eggs and all eggs ofa doubtful quality. The third grade, or tanners’ egg, 
was made of the rejects from the candling and breaking room, minus eggs with a 
strongly objectionable odor, such as musty eggs. Since good eggs have to be discarded 
when a bad egg is broken in a cup with them, a large number of good eggs were also 
present in the tanners’ stock. . 
