The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-09
COLD-STORAGE EGGS.

The modern development of cold
storage methods has in several ways
added TO the perplexities of health adj
ministration. On the one side are the
obvious advantages, economic and 9TH
err of carrying over valuable but per-
iShable foods from a time when they
are mot needed to a time of relative
scarcity. On the other hand are the
Well-knoWn abuses Of "cornering"
which raises the price both in the time
of abundance and the time of scarcity
and of overlong storage which may
cause wasteful or injurious deteriora-
ton. Attempts to remedy these abus-
es by legislative enactment are now
being made, one of the most popular
apparently being a three-months' time
limitation on the storage period.
So far as eggs are concerned this
movement is meeting with great oppo-
sition from large dealers, who point
out that three months is quite too
short a period to make storage com-
mercially profitable. The question
then sc ems to be whether fraud on the
public purse or injury to the public
health can be traced to the storage
of eggs at a low temperature for a
period longer than three months. Pub
lished observations, although rather
meager, show that progressive physi-
cal changes take place in cold-Stor-
age eggs. such changes being espec-
tally evidenced by loss of weight and
by an increased tendency of yolks and
whites to mingle. Chemically, there
is a lowering of the amount of coagu-
liable protein and lowered percen-
tage Of lecithin phosphorus. An in
crease in the lower nitrogen bodies,
proteoSes and peptones is noted, while
there is apparently a decrease in ami
do bodies. Bacterially. storage eggs
appear to be sterile or inhabited by
fatu Of OF a n
fungi. Whether such changes as those
indicated impair the food value of the
egg or render it injurious to health
is a point worthy of investigation. 1t
does not follow that, because chemi-
cal altera lions have occurred in a nj
trogenous substance, the resulting
product is necessarily unfit for food.
Ripened cheese has been ordinarily
subjected to the long continued action
of engines and bacteria, but it's food
value appears to be high.
OF course, quite apart from the eff
of eggs. the fact that most people
find coldstorage eggs less palatable
than fresh eggs renders the former
less available for many uses. While
the buyer is able to Judge OF the quail
ity of most food-stuffs by their ap-
pearance in the market, cold-storage
egg, when offered for SALE is practi-
cally indistinguishable from a fresh
one: it is on the table If at all that
the difference is apparent. Whatever
the final decision as to the effect on
health of the use of cold-storage eggs,
therefore. the public has right to
demand that it shall not be made to
buy cold-Storage eggs under the belief
that they are fresh. or to pay the price
of fresh eggs for stored ones. 1t
seems possible that if dealers were
compelled to call cold-storage eggs by
their right name and to state the
length of time they had been in stor-
age. many of the disadvantages now
ascribed to the practice of cold storage
would be removed. At least, it is
probable that the industry would tend
to assume less speculative and more
normal proportions.-Journal of the
American Medical Association.