EXPERIMENTS ON THE SPOILAGE OF TOMATO KETCHUP TEXT

Color reddish brown; greasy odor; many oil globules; too many mold filaments and bacteria for sound tomatoes. Price 20 cents. _No. 113._--Another bottle of the same brand examined in April, 1908; said to have been manufactured in 1908; no preservative mentioned; not spoiled after standing open for seventy days; same as No. 18 in color and odor; oil and many fungi again present. _No. 10._--Opened September 2, 1907; age unknown; half-pint bottle; no preservative mentioned; not spoiled July 6, 1908. A neck label 2 inches in height guaranteed the highest quality; an extra label lower down on the neck stated the product to be the natural color, and made from fresh, ripe tomatoes; the regular label carried the brand, manufacturer’s name, etc. Color brown; sweetish odor; colonies of mold; distorted filaments; many bacteria; a few small oil globules. Price 25 cents. _No. 106._--Same brand; pint bottle; examined in April, 1908; said to be manufactured in 1907; color red, discolored near surface; 2-inch neck label in addition to regular label; no preservative mentioned; did not spoil in seventy days; oil globules; particles of red, amorphous matter; whole colonies of mold, as well as fragments of filaments; teeming with bacteria. _No. 77._--Different brand, but same manufacturer as Nos. 10 and 106; age unknown; pint bottle; one-twelfth of 1 per cent of sodium benzoate declared; opened December 1; placed in incubator at 95° F. for a month; not spoiled July 6; color reddish brown; greasy odor; oil globules, many mold filaments, and bacteria present. Price 20 cents. _No. 107._--Third brand from same manufacturer as preceding; said to be manufactured in 1907; half-pint bottle; one-twelfth of 1 per cent of benzoate of soda declared; layer of oil on surface; sweet odor; reddish-brown color. Oil globules prominent feature microscopically, whole colonies of distorted mold were present, and sample contained many different forms of bacteria. Price 10 cents. _No. 14._--Opened September 2, 1907; age unknown; no preservative mentioned; not spoiled July 6, 1908; half-pint bottle; color red; good odor; few bacteria; free from refuse. Price 25 cents. _No. 108._--Same brand as No. 14; said to be manufactured in 1907; pint bottle; one-tenth of 1 per cent of benzoate of soda declared; color red; good odor; few fungi; clean and free from refuse. _No. 33._--Opened October 24, 1907; age unknown; one-tenth of 1 per cent of benzoate of soda declared; spoiled November 1; pint bottle (14 ounces); sweetish odor; brown color; many molds, yeast and bacteria. Price 10 cents. _No. 114._--Same brand as No. 33; said to be manufactured in 1907; opened in April; not spoiled in seventy days; many molds, yeasts, and bacteria; some green tissue, and filaments of algæ. The price was 10 cents. SUMMARY. 1. The experiments made during the season of 1907 on the manufacture of tomato ketchup without chemical preservatives were conducted under factory conditions and upon a commercial scale. The results prove that such a ketchup can be made and delivered to the consumer in perfect condition; the product in question having already stood ten months, unopened, without showing the slightest indication of spoilage. 2. The product is of excellent consistency, flavor, and color. The formula employed regularly in the factory where the experiment was conducted was used, but other recipes could be adapted without changing the character of special brands. In the manufacture of such a product the following precautions were observed: (_a_) Whole, sound, ripe tomatoes and high-grade salt, sugar, vinegar, and spices were used; care and cleanliness were observed at every step of the preparation, and the preservation accomplished by heat in the following manner: The pulp was cooked in a steam kettle for about forty minutes, until the mass was reduced to about one-half its volume. Additional processing after bottling did not appear to be necessary to keep the ketchup before opening, and had no effect in these experiments in delaying spoilage after opening. (_b_) Ketchup was bottled directly from the cooker at a temperature of 205° F. in bottles prepared in two ways: (1) Sterilized in a steam chamber at 230° F.; (2) Washed in hot water, rinsed, and heated to 190° F. in a dry heat for at least thirty minutes. Ketchup was also bottled after the usual process of sieving at 165° F. in bottles prepared in a similar manner. The corks for all bottles were sterilized in a paraffin bath at 270° F. The same ketchup which was bottled at 165° F. was also given subsequent processing at 190° F. and 212° F. for twenty and forty minutes. All have kept without spoilage. 3. Some of the condiments have a limited antiseptic value, but can not be depended upon to prevent spoilage in the quantities used for flavoring. While sugar and vinegar can be added in such amounts as to delay the appearance of molds, and cinnamon and cloves can be depended upon to check deterioration to some extent, these condimental substances have only an incidental value for this purpose. 4. The spoilage of ketchup after opening depends more upon the temperature of the place in which it is kept than on any variation in the manner of processing. Fresh ketchup held, after opening, at a temperature of 95° F. kept for five days on an average without any trace of mold appearing; at 72° it kept for six days; at 67° for eight days; about 46° (refrigerator), fourteen days; and at from 30° to 60° for twenty-seven days. These figures represent the time at which the first trace of spoilage occurred in the neck of the bottle--had this been removed the figures would be much increased--and by no means represent the maximum time during which the ketchup could have been used, the maximum figures, even under these conditions of observation, varying from eight to fifty-eight days. The keeping of the ketchup in warm storage at 70° for one hundred and fifty days before opening hastened the average time of spoilage after opening about one day. The advisability of using small containers, to get the best results with a first-class ketchup, is apparent. 5. Sodium benzoate, even when used in the proportion of 0.1 per cent, is not always effective, and has an injurious effect upon the living matter of the molds, shown by the distortion and swelling of the filaments, which are filled with a coarse granular protoplasm containing much fat. 6. Artificially colored ketchup can be detected under the microscope by the fact that certain tissues, normally colorless, are dyed red, or by the presence of fine, red, amorphous particles which do not go into solution. 7. Ketchup made from whole ripe stock in a cleanly manner gives a clean appearance under the microscope, but few molds, yeasts, and bacteria being present. On the other hand, ketchup made from trimming stock, or from tomatoes that have been allowed to spoil, contains immense quantities of these growing organisms which may be killed in the process of manufacture, but still give proof of the character of the material used. Ketchup as ordinarily made from trimming stock should, therefore, be designated, so as to differentiate it from that made from sound fresh tomatoes, as the two products are radically different. This exactness in labeling is due no less to the manufacturer than to the consumer, as it is impossible to make the superior product in fair competition with the inferior one, other conditions being equal, unless the two are properly designated, there being naturally some difference in the price. Transcriber's Notes: In the text version, italics are represented by _underscores_. Missing or incorrect punctuation has been repaired. The following corrections have been made to the text:-- p.8. A majority of the manufacturers employ word, has been changed to A majority of the manufacturers employ the word. p.28. one has has, the duplicate has been removed.