The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1906-06-06

rneat-food products. After killing,
carcasses are we'll washed, and up to
| the time they reach the cooling room
are handled in fairly sanitary and
cleanly manner. The parts that
leave the cooling room for treatment
in bulk are also handled with regard
to cleanliness, but the parts that are
sent from the cooling room to those
departments of the packing houses in
which various forms of meat products
are prepared are handled with no re-
! gard whatever for cleanliness. In
some Of the largest establishments
sides that are sent to what is known
as the boning room are thrown in a
heap upon the floor. 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 a rule, indescribably filthy. They
were made in most cases Of leather or
Of rough sacking and bore long accu-
mulated grease and dirt. In only a
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 handel, 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 barrefsVor into
machines for chopping. These floors,
it must be noted, were in most cases
damp and soggy, in dark, ill-venti-
lated rooms, and the employees in utter
ignorance of cleanliness or danger to
health expecorated at will upon them.
In word, we saw meat shoveled
from flthy-wooden floors, piled on ta-
bIes 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 expectoratjon Of tuber-
culous and other diseased workers.
Where comment was made to floor su-
perintendents about these matters, it
was always the reply that this meat
would afterwards be cooked, and that
this sterilization would prevent any
danger from it's use. Even this, it
may be pointed out in passing, is not
wholly true, A very considerable por-
as smoked products and in the form of
sausages, which are prepared to be
eaten without being cooked.
A. particularly glaring instance Of
uncleanliness was found in room
where the best grade of sausage was
being prepared for export. 1t was
made from carefully selected meats,
and was being prepared to be eaten
uncooked. In this case the employee
carted the chopped-up meat across a
room ip a barrow, the handles Of
which were filthy with grease. The
meat was then thrown out upon tables,
and the employee climbed upon the
table, handled the meat with his un-
washed 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
wheelbarrow, went back for another
load, and repeated this process indef-
initely. Inquiry developed that there
was~not water in this room at all, and,
the only method the man adopted for
cleaning his hands was to rub them
against his dirty apron or on his still
filthier trousers.
AS an exertme example of the entire
disregard on the part OF employees Of
any notion of cleanliness in handling
dressed meat. we saw hog that had
Just been killed, cleaned, washed and
started on its way to the cooling
room fall from the sliding rail to a
dirty wooden floor and slide part way
into filthy mems privy. 1t was pick
ed up by two employees. placed upon
truck, carried into the cooling room
and hung up with carcasses, no effort
being made to clean it.
AS to the investigation Of the al
legged use Of dyes, preservatives. or
chemicals in the preparation of cured