Effect of Storage Conditions on the Quality Attributes of Shell (Table) Eggs

摘要

In tropical countries like Nigeria, egg preservation is a serious problem. The common practice is to store unda ambient condition due to lack of refrigeration facilities and erratic power supply. Four crates of fresh table eggs wen bought from the University of Agriculture, Makurdi farm and preliminary investigations of egg weights, Haugh unit pH and yolk index were carried out before storage and found to be within standard. Thirty eggs were stored undel ambient condition with and without applicationof oil respectively. The other group of thirty eggs was refrigerated The initial weights were in the range of 60 — 69 g which reduced drastically. All other quality indices like the Haugl unit, the yolk index and pH declined drastically within the fourweeks of the storage especially those that were store! under the ambient conditions. Those stored under refrigeration and those that were oiled and stored under ambient conditions (32 + 2°C) maintained high quality standards in all the quality indicesevaluated. The microbiological result also showed higher bacteria, yeast and mould count on those stored under ambient condition with the initial count of 5.0 x 103 at first week and 2.8 x 107 at the fourth week while the oiled and refrigerated eggs hadvalues of 5.0 x lC at week zero and 7.2 x 104 at week four of storage respectively. It is suggested that application of oil on eggs before storage can be practised to ensure retention of good quality eggs especially in the tropics and most developing nations of the world.