Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-06-14

into the meat TO be converted into
such food products as sausages, dried
beef and other compounds. Some of
the privies are situated at long dis
tance from the workrooms, and men
relieve themselves on the killing floors
Or in a corner of the workrooms.
Hence, in some cases the fumes of the
urine swell the sum Of nauseating
odors arising from the dirty blood
soaked, rotting floors, fruitful culture
beds for the disease germs of men
and animals.
A Model SIaughterhouse in Contrast
with Those of Chicago.
In impressive contrast to the condi-
tions that We saw in the stock yards
of Chicago is an establishment that
Mr.. Reynolds visited in New York
City. 1t well merits a description in
those particulars in which it is vastly
superior 10 similar concerns in Chica-
go. The two upper floors used for cat
tie pens are paved With well-laid
bricks and cement, with side walls of
brick, the top floor being covered to
protect the cattle from the weather
The killing floor is paved with blue
stone. sloping toward well arranged
drains, and has a large air shaft for
special ventilation and abundant win
dows. The ceiling and upper side
walls are of hard cement, with steel
crossbeams and cement-faced steel
supports. The lower side walls are
covered with white porcelain brick.
ANhnn thn r1a 4f l., 10,
finished, water is turned on, and in
not more than fifteen minutes the
room is so thoroughly cleansed that
all perceptible odors and traces of the
work are removed. Other rooms, such
as those for cooling and storage, are
of similar construction to the killing
floor.
Treatment of Meats and Prepared
Food Products
Uncleanliness in handling products.
An absence of cleanliness was also
found everywhere in the handling of
meat being prepared for the various
meat-food products. After killing,
are well 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 pro
ducts are prepared are handled with
no regard whatever for cleanliness.
Meat scraps were also found being
shoveled into receptacles from dirty
floors where they were left to lie un
til again shoveled into barrels or in
to machines for chopping. These
floors, it must be noted, were in most
cases damp and soggy, in dark, ill
ventilated rooms. and the employees
in utter ignorance of cleanliness or
danger TO health expectorated at will
upon them. In a 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 tuber
culOus and other diseased workers.
Where comment was made to floor
superintendents about these matters.
It was always the reply that this meat
would afterwards be cooked, and that
this sterilization 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
)ut as smoked products and in the |
form of sausages, which are prepared
% be eaten without being cooked.
A particularly glaring instance Of
lncleanliness was found in room !
where the best grade of sausage was
being prepared for export. 1t was |
made from carefully selected meats, !
md was being prepared to be eaten |
lncooked. In this case the employee |
;arted the chopDed-uD meat across a !
'oom in barrow. the handles of !
which were filthy with grease. The |
neat was then thrown out upon tables |
md the employee climbed upon the |
able, handled the meat with his un |
washed hands. knelt with his dirty |
apron and trousers in contact with |
he meat he was spreading out, and. |
after he had finished his operation. |
lSaln took mold OF the dirty handles |
If the wheelbarrow, went back for an
'ther load, and repeated this process
Inquiry developed the |
act that there was no water in this
DOM at all, and the only method the
nan adopted for cleaning his hands
vas to rub them against his dirty
lpron or on his still fithier trousers.
AS an extreme example OF the en-
ire disregard on the part of employ
,es of any notion of cleanliness in
landlinG dressed meat, we saw hog
hat had Just been killed. cleaned.
washed, and started on it's way to
he cooling room fall from the slid
ng rail to dirty wooden floor and
lide part way into a filthy mems
'rivy. 1t was picked up by two en-
'loyees, placed upon a truck, carried
nto the cooling room and hung up
With other carcasses, no effort being
made to clean it.