Egg quality of vacuum packaged and stored at ambient conditions

• Grant number: 10/50928-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2010
• End date: September 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Technology
• Principal Investigator: Hirasilva Borba
• Grantee: Hirasilva Borba
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The egg is known as one of the most complete food, it offers a rich source of nutrients, and is the second best source of available protein for human consumption, the first one is breast milk. However, it is a good culture media for pathogenic microorganisms development and being a product of animal origin, as well as meat and its derivatives it is a highly perishable food and can lose its quality quickly (Theron et al., 2003). These changes depend on storage conditions, such as packaging, storage time, temperature and relative humidity. Thus, the objective of this study is to evaluate the physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics of white eggs, stored in different packaging under ambient conditions. It will be used 1224 white commercial eggs, collected from laying hens with the same age, strain and rearing system. Once collected, the eggs will be immediately taken to the laboratory of animal products technology from FCAV-Unesp/Jaboticabal, where they will be packed in twelve egg cartons. According to the used packing (normal packing, vacuum packing with oxygen absorber, vacuum packing with oxygen absorber and carbon dioxide absorber and vacuum packing with oxygen absorber and carbon dioxide generator) the eggs will be submitted to 7, 14, 21 and 28 days of storage at environment temperature (25 ± 2°C). It will be used a 4x4 +1 factorial arrangement (4 types of packing and 4 storage times + control - fresh eggs), with 3 replicates of 4 eggs each. The results will be submitted to analysis of variance with Statistical Analysis System (SAS) and the means will be compared by Tukey's test (5%). (AU)