PREPARATION OF FROZEN AND DRIED EGGS. oD 
fingers did not become wet. Inexperienced or ineflicient breakers always have wet 
hands. The instructions regarding clean, dry hands were illustrated by making 
finger prints on agar plates. The bacterial growth resulting was especially useful in 
showing the breakers the persistence of the organisms characterizing green white 
eggs, which were plentiful at this time. The routine of cracking, turning, opening, 
and draining the shells was that described when discussing D house in 1912 (p. 58). 
Eggs at this time cost 18 cents per dozen. It was necessary, therefore, to prevent 
waste as far as possible. Constant supervision enforced the regulation to turn the 
eges upward quickly aiter cutting to prevent leakage, and to hold the two halves 
oi the shell long enough to drain thoroughly. Another form of waste was due to the 
fact that 4 eggs were put into the cup before emptying; therefore 3 good eggs were 
sometimes lost because of 1 bad one. The management feared that too much time 
would be lost if the girls emptied the cups after each 3 eggs instead of 4. Obser- 
vations made with a split second timer showed that it required 26 seconds longer to 
open a dozen eggs when breaking 3 instead of 4 eggs to a cup before emptying. By 
interpolation, this difference amounts, on a case basis, to only 1.3 minutes. This 
extra time was considered negligible when compared with the number of good eggs 
saved if the cup was emptied when it contained 3 eggs. 
Other observations made amply confirm the foregoing statement. For example, 
during one-half day, there came to the breaking room 195 bad eggs. These were 
mixed by the breakers, when breaking 4 eggs to the cup, with 301 good eggs, which 
were, of course, discarded. At 18 cents a dozen this loss, during one-half day, 
amounted to $4.50. It would seem desirable, to prevent waste and contamination 
as well as to insure good grading, to work toward means by which each egg shall be 
handled separately. 
TABLE 17.— Contamination of good eggs with green-white eggs (E house, 1912). (Commer- 
cially prepared in packing house by breaking 4 eggs per cup and endeavoring to “* pour 
off” the bad egg.) | 
Bacteria per gram on | Gas-pro- 
plain agar incubated ducing 
Ey at— : Liquefying] a; 
Sample No. Visit. pate ofeol pacien organisms ee “ 
Fa laetass Perera. ee 
20° C. By (Oe bile. 
TUG, BES Ogee ae oe PELE AID I 22, v2 ccc 26, 000, 000 750, 000 TO" 000 lam ates ctepsinis 2 quarts. 
BPs Spee ate gle gly ae Ei 1D dike Sal dl CR eeese coe 1, 200, 000 500, 000 10,000 | 0 in 10,000 | 4 eggs. 
Oe eases Sas eaten cle Miay Ss.) 2.8 4, 200, 000 39, 000 10 530,000 | Do. 
781 GH opt cise nore BYEZ eeelewayelosscses: 35,000, 000 | 22,000,000 | 1,000,000} 4,700,000 | 8 eggs. 
2h OD a age bee | Mary tae. 14,000,000 | 15,000,000 10,000 | 15,000, 000 
SEY (EHS yee eee eee TB Pies | gal he rg is sors es 7, 800, 000 500, 000 100 | 5,500,000 | 5 eggs. 
ANTS af $e Gee SSS SEES hie Be2e ee May ee 9,700,000 | 1,300,000 | 0 in 10,000 | 6,100,000 | 7 eggs. 
It is not possible to separate the undesirable from the desirable egg by pouring out 
of the cup the visible undesirable egg. This fact is illustrated by experiments grouped 
in Table 17. When an egg with a green white was received in a cup already holding 
one or more good eggs, the green-white egg was poured off and the eggs remaining were 
collected and examined. The bacterial findings, as given in Table 17, show that 
the bacteria from the green eggs contaminated the good eggs, the extent of which is 
brought out by comparing the counts of the commercial product of the house made at 
the same time as the experiments under consideration. It was against the rules of the 
breaking room to use any liquid egg out of the shell which had been in contact with a 
bad egg. The bacterial variation in the regular product was from 140,000 to 1,500,000 
per gram; the lowest finding for the good eggs in contact with a green-white egg was 
1,200,000, and the maximum was 35,000,000. This principle holds true for any highly 
infected egg in contact with a good egg, and effectually disposes of the habit of pouring 
out the visible portions of the bad egg and using the rest. 
The product.—Two series of experiments were made on different days, tracing the 
egg step by step from the first pail to the final dried product. The results of these 
experiments, as listed in Table E-I (Appendix, p. 66), under visit No. 1, showed 
that the sources of contamination existing in 1911 had been eliminated except in one 
instance—namely, the brushes used to spread the egg on the drying belt. Even here 
the total count did not rise, but there was an appreciable increase in the number of 
B.coli. There is a discrepancy in the number of bacteria reported in this sequence 
of samples. Thisis due, probably, to the fact that they were taken at the outset of 
the work before the routine of taking and handling samples wasestablished. Too much 
