A twenty-four month study was conducted to determine the effect of increasing hen age, strain and molting treatment on the occurrence of Salmonella spp. and other intestinal microflora in shell eggs. The first 12-month experiment observed the effects of increasing hen age and strain on microorganism contamination, while the following 12-month study included the addition of three molting treatments.;From these experiments, it was concluded that hen age had a significant impact on the amount of microbial contamination, while hen strain had no effect. It was also determined that each of the three molting treatments contained significant amounts of microflora, with the non-fasted treatment exhibiting 4 interior samples that were positive for Salmonella Braenderup over the course of the final 12-month portion. There was no evidence of Salmonella Enteritidis discovered with any treatment during the course of the experiment, and none of the Salmonella spp. discovered in the environmental samples could be correlated to the species found in the shell eggs.;A study was conducted in which pasteurized whole egg and albumen products containing citric acid and triethyl citrate were obtained from a total of 3 processing facilities and tested using both chemical and functional analyses. The chemical analyses were performed using CEM Microwave Technology and the functional experiments were conducted using outlines procedures referenced from Cotterill and Standelman.;The results of these experiments concluded that the theory of pasteurization being detrimental to the functionality of whole egg products was not applicable to this study. In fact, pasteurization had less of an effect on the functionality of whole egg than did the addition of citric acid. The PC (pasteurized with citric acid) and RC (unpasteurized with citric acid; control) showed the greatest sponge cake volume, while the PC treatment also exhibited less custard weep and a higher bloom force or gel strength. It was observed that the addition of citric acid produced a higher sponge cake volume than the non-supplemented treatments; however, this addition only had a positive impact for custards in the treatment which was pasteurized. This proves that the pasteurization process plays a greater role protein gel formation, while supplementation with citric acid shows a greater effect in bakery products. It was also discovered that there were no differences in the pH, total protein, fat, or moisture of any of the treatments used when the chemical analyses were performed.;The albumen portion of this study utilized the same treatments with the exception of the addition of a triethyl citrate whipping agent instead of citric acid. The results of this research concluded that there were no significant differences in the chemical analyses of the treatments, including pH, total protein, fat, and moisture. This proves that the addition of the whipping agent did not alter the chemical composition of any of the products tested. It was observed that there were no statistical (P>0.05) differences in the shipping heights of the 4 treatments. However, the addition of the triethyl citrate whipping agent improved angel food cake volume. During the TPA analysis, it was discovered that the PW treatment had the most positive impact. This proves that the addition of whipping agent to albumen products provides a high cake volume with more foam stability and seems to combat the effects of pasteurization, whereas the product that was only pasteurized did not perform well when compared to the other treatments. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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