Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-06-06

what Is known as the boping room gre thrown in a heap upon the noor. The workers climb over these heaps of
 meat, select the pieces they wish and
 frequently throw them down upon the
 dirty floor beside their working bench
 Even in cutting the meat upon the
 bench the work is usually held pressed
 against their aprons, and these aprons
 were as rule indeScribahy filthy.
 They were made in most cases of
 leather or of rough sacking and bore
 long accumulated grease and dirt. In
 only few places were suitable oilcloth
 aprons worn. Moreover, men were seen
 to climb from the floor and stand, with
 shoes dirty with the refuse of the
 floors, on the tables upon which the
 meat was handled. They were seen at
 the lunch hour sitting on the tables on
 the spot on which the meat product
 was handled, and all this under the
 very eye of the superintendent of the
 room, showing that this was the com
 mon practice.
 Meat scraps were also found being
 shoveled into receptacles from dirty
 floors, where they were left to lie until
 again shoveled into barrels or into ma.
 chimes for chopping. These floors, 1t
 must be noted, were in most cases damp and soggy, in dark, i'll ventilated
 rooms, and the employees in utter ig-
 norance of cleanliness or danger to health exptctorated at will upon them.
 In word, we saw meat shoveled from
 filthy wooden floors, piled on tables rarely washed, pushed from room to room in rotten box carts, in all of which processes it was in the way of gathering dirt, splinters, floor filth and the expectoration of tuperculous and other diseased workers. Where com ment was made to floor superintend- ents about these matters it was always the reply that this meat would after. ward be cooked and that this steriliza. tlon would prevent any danger from its use. Even this, it may be pointed out in passing, is not wholly true. A very considerable portion of the meat so handled is sent out as smoked prod. ucts and in the form of sausages, which are prepared to be eaten without being cooked
 A particularly glaring instance of un.. cleanliness was found in a room where the best grade of sausage was being prepared for export. It was made from carefully selected meats and was be- ing prepared to be eaten uncooked In this case the employee carted the chop ped up meat across room in a bar row the handles of which were filthy with grease. The meat was then thrown out upon tables, and the em- ployee climbed upon the table, han dled the meat with his unwashed hands, knelt with his dirty apron and trousers in contact with the meat he was spreading out and, after he had finished his operation, again took hold of the dirty handles of the wheeibar- row, went back for another load and repeated this process indefinitely. h. Quiry developed the fact that there was no water in this room at all, and the only method the man adopted for cleaning his hands was to rub them on bis dirty apron or filthier trousers.
 As an extreme example of the entire disregard on the part of employees of any notion of cleanliness in handling dressed meat we saw a hog that had just been killed, cleaned, washed and started on Its way to the cooling room fall from the sliding rail to Q dirty wooden floor and slide part way Into a filthy mems privy. It was picked up by two employees. placed upon a truck. carried into the cooling room and hung up with other carcasses, no effort being made to clean 1t.
 Treatment of Meat After Inspection. The radical defect in the present sys- tenn of inspection Is that 1t does not go far enough. It Is confined at pres ent by law to passing on the healthful- ness of animals at the time of killing. but the meat that is used in sausage and in the various forms of canned products and other prepared meat foods goes through many processes, in all of which there is possibility of con through insanitary handling and further danger through the use of chemicals. During all these processes of preparation there is no government and no assurance whatever that these meat food products are wholesome and ft for food. despite the fact that all these products when sent out bear label stating they have been passed upon by government inspectors.
 As, to the Investigation of the al- legged use of dyes. conservatives or chemicals in the preparation of cured meats. sausages and canned goods we are not yet prepared to report. We did look Into the matter of sanitary of the meats being prepared for the various food products The re- suits of our observations have already been partly given. Other instances of ! how products may be made up and still l secure the stamp of government in ! spection are here given. In one well | known establishment we came upon l fresh meat being shoveled into barrels 1 and a regular proportion being added ] of stale scraps that had lain on dirty ! floor in the corner Of a room for some | lays previous. In another establish I nent. equally Nell known. a long ta- | ble WIS noted covered with several hundred pounds of cooked scraps of | beef and other meats. Some of these | meat scraps were dry. leathery and un. 1t to be eaten. and in the heap were